The Chicago Cubs pulled off a rare feat Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, all thanks to Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong.
Busch was walked in the 10th inning with the bases loaded to lift the Cubs to a 7-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds. That came after Crow-Armstrong hit a two-run home run in the ninth inning to tie the game and eventually force an extra inning.
Remarkably, that was the team’s third straight walk-off win over the Reds. The Cubs became the first team in MLB to pull off such a feat since the Los Angeles Dodgers grabbed three consecutive walk-off wins over the Colorado Rockies during the 2019 campaign.
The Cubs kicked off the streak with a 5-4 win over the Reds on Monday night, when pinch-hitter Michael Conforto hit a solo homer in the ninth. Then, on Tuesday night, Busch hit a single in the 10th inning to bring in Dansby Swanson and grab a 3-2 win.
That led to Wednesday’s win, which marked the eighth in a row for the Cubs and their 14th consecutive victory at Wrigley Field. While it wasn’t as exciting as the other two walk-offs, it still absolutely counted.
The real action, however, came in the ninth inning, when the Reds put up four runs to take a 6-4 lead after a home run from Spencer Steer and an RBI single from JJ Bleday. But it was Elly De La Cruz who hit a sacrifice fly that was caught by Seiya Suzuki just in front of the outfield wall. Suzuki fell down after making the catch, allowing two runs to score on the sacrifice fly and giving the Reds a two-run lead.
But Crow-Armstrong answered back in the bottom of the inning with his fourth home run of the season.
The Cubs now sit at 25-12 and are in first place in the NL Central. Their walk-off win streak is the franchise’s longest since 2009, when it also had three in a row against the White Sox and Cleveland.
The Reds, on the other hand, have lost six straight and hold a 20-17 record. The two teams will wrap up the four-game series Thursday afternoon.
