Pink power: Baez wins game with special bat

CHICAGO -- Before Sunday's game, the Cubs' Javier Baez positioned his pink bats, pink batting gloves, pink shoes and pink shirt on his chair to take a photo and post it on Instagram with the message, "Happy Mother's Day." In the 13th inning, he made the bat even more special by using it to hit a walk-off home run.
Baez made his mother -- and all the mothers among the 41,233 fans at Wrigley Field -- very happy by belting a blast with one out in the 13th to lift Chicago to a 4-3 victory over the Nationals.
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"This is one of those days we all look forward to," Chicago's Kris Bryant said of Mother's Day. "It's great -- we're all wearing pink. Today is for them. If it wasn't for my mom, I wouldn't be here. I'm grateful for everything she's done for me. It's a day to show all of our moms we appreciate them."
Anthony Rizzo had his mother Laurie's name engraved on his pink bats, and he planned on sending her one as a souvenir. Baez, though, made the biggest statement with his home run, giving the Cubs their first walk-off win of the season.

"You can see how much power he's got," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "That was pretty much a one-hand flip of the bat. That had rockets on it, man, and that was really well struck."
Was Baez thinking home run?
"Not really," he said. "I was just trying to get on base and get a good pitch to hit. [Blake Treinen] was throwing hard, 97 [mph] with a sink. After the second strike, I just sat on the slider because they've been throwing it to me this series a lot. I was just looking for that pitch and he threw it in the center."
And he launched it into the left-field bleachers with his pink bat.

Cubs fans in the bleachers joined in the Mother's Day fun, wearing pink T-shirts. Catcher Tim Federowicz didn't have a pink bat, but he and David Ross made up for it with pink catcher's gear. Jorge Soler was one of the players who had a bouquet of brightly colored flowers on his shoes. Instead of red numerals and lettering on the Cubs' home white uniforms, it was a dark pink.
Bryant and Dexter Fowler were the only starting position players who didn't have pink shoes. Rizzo, Addison Russell and Jason Heyward were hard to miss in their neon pink colored footwear.
During the game, the video scoreboard featured players wishing their mothers and wives happy Mother's Day. Zobrist's wife, Julianna, noticed and posted on Twitter: "No flowery words needed for this one except to simply say: That's my man on the screen saying 'I'll love you forever.' (Emoticons are appropriate when you're at a loss for words)." She added a few symbols, including a heart.

Authentic game-used Louisville Slugger pink bats and other gear from Mother's Day games will be auctioned exclusively at MLB.com, with proceeds benefiting the fight against breast cancer. The complete Mother's Day collection -- which includes the special caps and jerseys being worn by players on Sunday -- is available at the MLB.com Shop.