Wisdom, Schwindel pull off 53-year Cubs first to snap skid originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
As reporters gathered around his locker following Sunday’s game, Cubs third baseman Patrick Wisdom asked for a moment.
Wisdom then took off his Cubs jersey and put on a gray Obvious Shirts tee with ‘Schwisdom’ adorned across the front.
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It was only fitting. Wisdom and Schwindel hit back-to-back solo home runs in the eighth inning Sunday against the Diamondbacks, tying the score and then giving the Cubs a 5-4 lead — the game’s final score.
And in doing so, they made Cubs history.
Wisdom and Schwindel are the first pair of Cubs teammates to hit back-to-back home runs in consecutive games since Ernie Banks and Jim Hickman did Aug. 23-24, 1969. The duo did so in the second inning Saturday.
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“That’s pretty cool. That’s really cool,” Wisdom said. “We feed off each other’s energy.”
Said Schwindel, whose locker is right next to Wisdom, when a member of the Cubs’ PR staff informed him of the history: “That’s sick.”
The Cubs had lost four straight games entering Sunday and were in danger of being swept before Wisdom and Schwindel’s heroics.
Funny enough, one pitch before his homer, Wisdom hit a sharp ground ball down the third base line. It was ruled foul but looked close to being fair.
“It ended up working out for him,” Schwindel said. "A double would have been nice too, but the back-to-back was pretty cool."
Wisdom and Schwindel were two of the Cubs’ top feel-good stories last season. Wisdom set the Cubs’ rookie home run record and Schwindel took the league by storm offensively after the Cubs’ trade deadline selloff.
After hitting three home runs in April, they've started to come in bunches for Wisdom. He’s hit one in three straight games, the first time he’s done that in his career, and is up to nine on the season.
“Sometimes I'm up there and it seems like I'm trying to go 600 feet,” Wisdom said of his approach in that plate appearance Sunday.
“I remembered facing them [Saturday], so I didn't try to do too much.”
His home run went 404 feet, for what it's worth.
After a rough stretch at the plate, Schwindel was optioned to Triple-A Iowa two weeks ago before the Cubs recalled him in a pinch less than 24 hours later.
His numbers have slowly been trending upward since the demotion. He was hitting .209 with a .250 on-base percentage when the Cubs sent him down.
Over his 13 games since, he’s hit .261 with a .306 OBP.
“Everything has gone back up,” manager David Ross said. “[He’s] hitting the ball hard, taking his walks. Looks like his timing is there, doing a really nice job in the box for us.”
Schwindel said he’s been feeling “much better” at the plate over the last week, specifically pointing to his timing.
“When the timing is good, the mechanics are going to be in sync,” he said “Just staying timed up with the fastball and adjust from there. I think it's been better.”
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