Another Cubs game, another Javier Baez highlight reel

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Another Cubs game, another Javier Baez highlight reel.
 

The infielder continued to prove he is among the most exciting players in baseball during the Cubs’ scintillating 8-7 victory over the Reds on Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field.
 

Baez went 4-for-5 with a home run, two RBIs and a stolen base to help the Cubs twice rally from five-run deficits and snap a five-game losing skid to the Reds. In his last 10 games, Baez is batting .465 with 12 RBIs and 13 runs and now leads the Cubs with 26 multi-hit games. He continues to dazzle at the plate, in the field and on the base paths.
 

“I can’t think of a player who is any more instinctual or is any more exciting than him,” Cubs President Theo Epstein said. “Those are some great qualities to have. I don’t think he gets enough credit for his pure baseball intelligence. He sees the game so well. His innate sense of timing and anticipation is really unrivaled. He’s someone you don’t take your eyes off on the field. Those guys don’t come around very often.”
 

The Cubs are fortunate Baez is around these days as he continues to help the offense bail out a starting pitching staff that save for Jon Lester has continued to struggle. On Saturday it was Tyler Chatwood who got off the hook as Baez belted his 17th homer of the season—tied with Kyle Schwarber for tops on the Cubs--in the seventh inning to spark the rally and then in the eighth tied the game at 7-7 with an infield single, all with the crowd of 41,358 chanting, “Javy, Javy.”
 

After grounding out in the first inning, Baez collected four consecutive hits to lift his season average to .294 to go along with a team-leading 63 RBIs.
 

“For me, it takes one AB to see where I’m at on my swing, on my timing,” Baez said afterward. “During the game, I get looser (and) I get on-time with my timing.”
 

The timing of Baez’s exploits couldn’t be better with All-Star Game rosters set to be announced Sunday. Cubs manager Joe Maddon was emphatic after the game, saying Baez should be an All-Star when the game is played later this month in Washington D.C.
 

“I think he should be and I think the fans would want it,” Maddon said. “How could you not have him on the All-Star team? How could you not want him on the All-Star team? What you’re attempting to showcase MLB-wise to draw young fans into the game are players like Javy.
 

“I have to believe, I want to believe he’s got to get on that team somehow because you could look at numbers all you want, but that’s what people want to see, they want to see Baez play baseball,” Maddon added.
 

The 25-year-old Baez acknowledged that being an All-Star “is one of my goals.”
 

“I’m sure every player wants to be in the All-Star Game,” Baez said. “If I have the numbers to go, hopefully I go. Whoever gets picked gets picked the right way, with the numbers. We’ll see what happens.”

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