Frank Schwindel replaced Anthony Rizzo at first base after the big selloff in 2021, and actually hit pretty well: .342/.389/.613 with 13 home runs in 56 games, enough to get him some downballot Rookie
of the Year votes.
He didn’t hit as well in 2022 and the team, picked over by the selloff, didn’t play very well early on. Thus Schwindel was called on to pitch in three blowouts.
The Cubs were losing 12-5 to the Cardinals June 3 at Wrigley Field heading to the ninth inning, so Schwindel was summoned to replace Mark Leiter Jr. And Schwindel threw pretty well for a while, retiring the first two Cardinals he faced. Then Corey Dickerson and Lars Nootbaar homered off him, and Schwindel wound up popping up to end the game. The Cubs lost 14-5.
Nine days later the Cubs were visiting Yankee Stadium for the last of a three-game series. In the first of those games, the Cubs lost 2-1 in 13 innings, using nine pitchers. The second contest was an 8-0 blowout, with Matt Swarmer and Michael Rucker taking one for the team, Swarmer serving up a team record six home runs.
So when the Yankees started pounding Cubs pitching in that third game of the series, Schwindel warmed up his pitching arm again. The Cubs trailed 17-4 going into the ninth inning.
That’s when Schwindel threw this ridiculous pitch [VIDEO].
The pitch was — and I believe remains — the slowest pitch ever measured in the pitch tracking era (since 2008) that was hit for a home run.
Weird, but fun. The Cubs lost the game 18-4. It was the sixth loss in what would become a 10-game losing streak.
Three days later, the Cubs were being blown out again, this time at Wrigley Field against the Padres, in what would become the ninth loss in that streak.
They were losing 16-5 when Schwindel entered to throw the ninth. Schwindel surrendered another homer, this one to Luke Voit, and two more runs, making the final score Padres 19, Cubs 5.
That streak was one of the most dreadful in Cubs history. The Cubs lost the three games in which Schwindel pitched by a combined score of 51-14, and from the first of those three games through the end of that 10-game losing streak, the Cubs went 1-11 and were outscored 105-41.
That wasn’t a good Cubs season. But at least Schwindel entertained us, a bit, anyway.
