One thing is for sure. You cannot say you were not entertained by the Cubs’ 5-4 win over the Rockies Monday evening at Wrigley Field.
It had a little bit of everything — some solid pitching, some blown leads, Pete Crow-Armstrong’s cycle and and in the end, the Cubs’ ninth walk-off win of 2026 on a bases-loaded walk drawn by Matt Shaw.
Let’s rewind to the beginning.
Shōta Imanaga continued his good pitching over the Rockies. He allowed a leadoff single, then retired the next three Rockies in the first inning.
Then PCA hit his second leadoff home run in the last three days [VIDEO].
That one took four pitches instead of the one pitch it took for him to do it Saturday. And that ball was crushed! [VIDEO]
Cubs leadoff homer facts from BCB’s JohnW53:
Pete Crow-Armstrong’s homer was his second in three games as the Cubs’ first batter of the game. The first was at San Francisco.
He is the 39th Cub since 1876 to do it at least once at home and on the road.
The Cubs have hit 137 first-batter homers at home and 130 on the road, for a total of 267.
Jimmy “Pony” Ryan and Rick Monday hit the most at home, 12. Alfonso Soriano is a distant third, with five, followed by Ian Happ and Corey Patterson, with four.
Soriano is the leader in total first-batter homers, with 22. Ryan had 19; Monday, 17; Dexter Fowler, 12; and Abner Dalrymple, Happ and Brian McRae, eight. No one else had more than five.
Imanaga allowed a two-out single to Jake McCarthy in the second — and then picked him off [VIDEO].
The game stayed at 1-0 Cubs into the sixth. The Cubs had several scoring chances, mainly because PCA was putting together his cycle. He tripled leading off the third [VIDEO].
Unfortunately, he was stranded. The same thing was PCA’s, and the team’s, fate in the fifth — leadoff double, then stranded [VIDEO].
Imanaga had a run charged to his record in the sixth, and it wasn’t all his fault. He allowed a leadoff walk, then a fielder’s choice and a fly to center had him one out away from finishing six innings with a 1-0 lead. But another single put runners on first and second with two out, and Craig Counsell replaced Imanaga with Phil Maton. I was a bit surprised, as Imanaga was at 89 pitches. But Counsell must have realized that Rockies manager Warren Schaffer would replace Ezequiel Tovar with pinch-hitter Troy Johnston and he preferred that matchup.
Unfortunately, Maton hit Johnston to load the bases and then walked Cole Carrigg to force in the tying run.
The Cubs got the lead back in the bottom of the sixth. With two out, Moisés Ballesteros walked. This triple by Matt Shaw made it 2-1 Cubs [VIDEO].
The Rockies asked for a review and as you can see in that clip, the ball was clearly fair.
PCA completed his cycle — in reverse order, the first Cub to do that! — with this leadoff single in the seventh [VIDEO].
It was the team’s first cycle since Carson Kelly’s last year against the A’s in Sacramento, and the first by a Cub (and by anyone at Wrigley Field) since Mark Grace cycled in 1993. Later this morning (at 9 a.m. CT) I’ll have a full history of Cubs cycles here. Here’s more on Cubs cycles from John:
PCA’s was 13th in franchise history, including two before Modern Era, both by Jimmy Ryan, in 1888 and 1891.
…..
No player before PCA had been picked off after completing his cycle.
On Aug. 2, 1940, Joe Cronin of the Red Sox, against the Tigers, tripled in the first and struck out in the third. He led off the fifth with a double, then was picked off on pitcher Bobo Newsom’s throw to shortstop Dick Bartell.
Jimmie Foxx, up next, homered, after which Newsom was replaced by Tom Seats. Cronin singled in the sixth and homered in the eighth to complete the cycle.
…..
After George Sisler of the Browns completed his cycle with a two-out single in the ninth inning on Aug. 13, 1921 against the Tigers, he tried to steal second and was tagged out, ending the game.Less than a year later, on July 3, 1922, Bob Meusel of the Yankees began his cycle by singling in the first inning and was caught stealing.
No other player who hit for a cycle was nailed on a steal attempt for more than a century, until Elly
De La Cruz was out trying to steal home after his cycle-completing triple on June 23, 2023.
Here’s more on the reverse cycle:
And a bit more on reverse cycles from John:
There have been only 10 games in MLB history in which a player made a natural cycle in reverse: homer, triple, double and single in that order.
The first two were in 1885 and 1887; the third in 1904; and only seven since 1937. None were by a Cub.
There have been exactly 400 cycles since the first, in 1882. The most recent before PCA’s was by Byron Buxton of the Twins on July 12, 2025.
Oh, yes. As John mentioned, PCA immediately got himself picked off [VIDEO].
The pickoff hurt the Cubs in that inning, because they then loaded the bases on a single by Alex Bregman and walks drawn by Michael Busch and Seiya Suzuki. But Ian Happ and Nico Hoerner struck out to end the inning.
Jacob Webb had thrown a 1-2-3 top of the seventh but gave up a leadoff single in the eighth. That brought in Caleb Thielbar, who struck out TJ Rumfield, but then issued a walk. After a fly ball to center, Carrigg smashed a three-run homer.
That, I am certain, brought out the sad thoughts in you that most of us have been thinking for a month now.
But the Cubs did not give up on this game. In the bottom of the eighth, pinch-hitter Pedro Ramirez led off with a single. He wa forced at second by Shaw, and then another pinch-hitter, Michael Conforto, walked.
Both runners moved up on a wild pitch, which was important. PCA was the next hitter and he hit a line drive to right, deep enough to score Shaw to make it 4-3 [VIDEO].
The chanting of “PCA! PCA! PCA!” you hear in that clip is about the loudest I’ve ever heard it. Pretty cool.
Bregman followed with a walk, but Busch struck out to end the inning.
Daniel Palencia threw a 1-2-3 ninth, with all three outs recorded by strikeout.
That set up the Cubs’ game-winning rally, which was accomplished with only one baseball put in play. Suzuki led off with a walk. Happ hit a weak little comebacker to pitcher Juan Mejia, who threw to second — at least one out, and possibly a double play, right?
Well, nope, fortunately for the Cubs. Mejia threw the ball away and Happ was safe. Suzuki, the tying run, wound up on third.
Ramirez, who is looking like a quality MLB hitter and should be getting more playing time, singled in Suzuki to tie the game [VIDEO].
The bases remained loaded, with Happ at third representing the winning run.
Shaw drew ball four on a 3-1 pitch and the Cubs had their wacky win [VIDEO].
As I mentioned earlier, that’s now nine walk-off wins for the Cubs this year. The franchise record is 14, set in 1930 — that seems a mark this year’s Cubs might break. The MLB record for such things is 17, set by the Pirates in 1959 and matched by them in 1977.
More on the walk-off wins from the Cubs this year:
The number of walk-offs is one reason Palencia has only three saves (and no blown saves) — there just haven’t been many save opportunities! The Cubs have had only 21 save opportunities, tied for the fewest (also Red Sox, Giants, Mets) in MLB this year. The Rays and Nationals have the most with 39. The Cubs have 10 saves — three by Palencia, two by Thielbar and one each from Ben Brown, Corbin Martin, Hoby Milner, Colin Rea and Jacob Webb.
Here are Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
The Cubs, after a 7-22 run, have now won four of their last five. That’s something to build on, and it is still just mid-June.
The Cubs will go for the series win Tuesday evening at Wrigley Field. Edward Cabrera will start for the Cubs and Ryan Feltner goes for the Rockies. Game time is again 7:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
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