SI

Cubs’ Mike Tauchman Credits Wife’s OBGYN for His Walk-Off Hit in Funny Moment

This may be a tricky superstition to hold up.

Josh Wilson

Chicago Cubs outfielder Mike Tauchman (40) celebrates his walk-off single against the St. Louis Cardinals during the ninth inning at Wrigley Field
Chicago Cubs outfielder Mike Tauchman (40) celebrates his walk-off single against the St. Louis Cardinals during the ninth inning at Wrigley Field / Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
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The Chicago Cubs, 9.5 games out from the NL Central lead and 6.0 games back from a wild card slot, need a major push to make a run at the 2024 postseason. Mike Tauchman's walk-off single on Thursday night over their division rival St. Louis Cardinals was a good start.

Tauchman's heroics put a cap on what was an awesome ninth inning for the Cubs. Coming in down 4-2, Cody Bellinger hit a home run with one out to bring the Cubs within one. Nico Hoerner then got on base, and Dansby Swanson drove him in to tie it, all with two outs. Then, Tauchman hit a single to end it.

An absolutely comical plummet in win probability for the Cards:

Asked after the game what conclusion he draws from his walk-off, Tauchman made up a cool stat: Every time his wife goes to an OBGYN appointment, he hits a walk-off.

"My wife had a OBGYN appointment this morning. And she told me that the last walk-off was also, we had an appointment that morning. So I'm going to start taking her to the doctor," Tauchman joked. "We're going to get a lot of appointments in. So, uh, shoutout women's healthcare."

"She OK'd me sharing it, too," Tauchman said.

While there's probably no causation between his wife's appointments and his propensity to hit walk-offs, the correlation is undeniable. Baseball players are endlessly superstitious, so good luck convincing Tauchman this didn't have an impact.

He hit a walk-off home run on June 5 against the White Sox in the crosstown rivalry, and last year snagged a would-have-been walk-off home run for the Cardinals in centerfield to end a game. He's clutch.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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