Cubs shortstop Andrelton Simmons felt a little anxious taking the field in the ninth inning of a close game at Arizona on Sunday.
“As soon as I touch that ball, it’s like, OK, I’m back,” he said of the game-ending double play he started. “Honestly, still to this it takes me that first ball. It’s like, OK, I’ve done this before.’ I don’t know why.”
Simmons has done this plenty before, signing with the Cubs this spring a decade into his major-league career. But the ninth inning of the Cubs’ 3-2 win at Arizona Sunday marked his first regular season game as a Chicago Cub.