Tony Kemp came off the bench and changed the game with one swing. He turned on an off-speed pitch left over the plate and ripped it down the right field line. The ball found the ivy in right, and Kemp never slowed down. He flew around the bases for a two-run triple that gave his team the lead at Wrigley. The crowd exploded, thinking the Cubs might still have playoff hopes. They didn’t, but in that moment, it felt alive.
After Kemp’s slide into third, the opposing team tried to get cute with an appeal, hoping someone might’ve missed the bag. No dice. Everyone touched third clean. Just to keep digging, the pitcher threw over to third for an appeal and airmailed it. Kemp trotted home on what looked like a Little League home run. The umpires confirmed everything was legal, and the opposing manager looked stunned at how bad that sequence went.
Buck Showalter chimed in on YES Network with a take about pitchers struggling to throw to bases from flat ground. He said they’re used to pitching downhill, so when they throw flat to flat, they overdo it and airmail the ball. That played out in real time here, giving fans another reason to appreciate Tony Kemp’s hustle and the chaos that followed.