The Chicago Cubs pulled off a rare, historic feat on 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 on Monday night. That came after Crow-Armstrong hit a two-run shot in the ninth inning to tie the game up and eventually force extra innings, too.
Remarkably, that was the team’s third straight walk-off win over the Reds. The Cubs are now the first team in Major League Baseball 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 win at Wrigley Field. While it wasn’t as exciting as the other two walk-offs, it still absolutely counts.
The real action, however, came in the ninth inning, when the Reds put up three runs to take the 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 went all the way back to the outfield wall that made the difference. The shot scored two, and put the Reds up 6-4 at the time.
But Crow-Armstrong answered right back in the bottom of the inning with his fourth home run of the season.
The Cubs now sit at 25-12 on the year and are in first in the NL Central. Their walk-off win streak is the longest since 2009, when they also had three in a row against the White Sox and Cleveland
The Reds, on the other hand, have now lost six straight and hold a 20-17 record. The two teams will wrap up the four-game series on Thursday afternoon.
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