Padres Pitcher Balked Home Back-to-Back Runs vs. Cubs Thanks to Silly Mistake

Andy Nesbitt | Apr 6, 2025

Padres pitcher Logan Gillaspie balked in two straight runs Sunday vs. the Cubs. / @MLB

Scoring runs in a MLB game is usually quite a challenge for teams. That wasn't true for the Chicago Cubs on Sunday as they plated two runners in a row by not doing anything at all. Instead, they just stood there as San Diego Padres Logan Gillaspie was called for two straight balks with runners on.

Gillaspie entered the game with two outs in the first inning and with the bases loaded. He then told the home plate umpire he was going to work from the windup with a runner on third, which he's allowed to do. But then he made the same mistake twice by stopping during his windup and was called for a balk each time.

If you're going to tell the ump you're going to work from the windup, you should probably know the rules about doing so. Instead, it turned into quite mess for Gillaspie and the Padres.

Here's a good breakdown of what happened:

The Padres balked in consecutive runs in a *wacky* first inning vs the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Padres reporter Bob Scanlan explains why San Diego pitcher Logan Gillaspie was called for the balks (the first featured umpires meeting for several minutes). pic.twitter.com/k0ia31z0kz https://t.co/NlVkF4OcA6

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 6, 2025

Not great!

The Cubs scored five times in the opening frame after giving up three runs to the Padres in the top of the first. What a wild day at Wrigley.

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