CHICAGO—It had been 22 days since the man at the plate had swiped a hit, about 102 hours since the man on the mound had last pitched. It was the ace against the third-string catcher, an easy equation to solve during the hours when baseball is played—but this was not one of those hours. This was past 11 p.m., the 13th inning of an elimination game at Wrigley Field, and in the upside-down, Tony Wolters ended up on first base.
Wolters, who was batting .170 when he walked to the plate, hit a single off the mound into shallow centerfield.