In the top of the seventh inning Thursday night at Wrigley Field, I was sitting around thinking sad thoughts, after Shōta Imanaga had given up two more home runs, totaling four long balls allowed on the evening, and the Cubs trailed the Athletics 6-1. At that point — and come on, you were thinking this too — it felt like it might as well have been 60-1, the way the Cubs have been hitting recently.
Well. All of us were wrong as the Cubs put together an almost-unbelievable ninth-inning rally, coming
from three runs down in the ninth for the first time since David Bote’s ultimate grand slam in 2018. The 7-6 win over the A’s ended a three-game losing streak, but perhaps more importantly, might give this team the boost they really need after a long, long stretch of losing baseball.
Let’s begin at the beginning.
Imanaga breezed through the first two innings. Meanwhile, the Cubs were adding to their RISP frustration. Pete Crow-Armstrong was hit by a pitch and stole second. All that led to was going 0-for-3 with RISP, three strikeouts with a Michael Busch walk in the middle. Then Moisés Ballesteros singled with one out in the second, but Dansby Swanson hit into a double play.
This is going swimmingly well, right?
With two out in the fourth, A’s DH Shea Langeliers hit a ball that bounced in and out of the right-field basket for a home run (confirmed on review). Okay, the wind’s blowing out and that one just barely made it, not totally Shōta’s fault. Meanwhile, the Cubs went down 1-2-3 in the third, fourth and fifth.
The A’s plated another run in the sixth on a one-out walk and double.
You could tell right away that PCA had no idea where that ball was. He didn’t lose it in the lights — right around that time was dusk, not quite sunset, and it’s really hard to see the ball against that kind of sky. I lost track of it too — until it landed about 70 feet behind PCA near the warning track. Langeliers circled the bases for a two-run inside-the-park home run, making it 4-0.
That led to this fun fact. Well, not so fun for the Cubs, but interesting regardless (Bluesky link):
It’s 4-0 now and it felt like 40-0, the way the Cubs were hitting (one hit over the first five innings).
PCA got one of those runs back with one out in the sixth [VIDEO].
Okay, 4-1 in the sixth gives the Cubs a sign of life.
Craig Counsell allowed Imanaga to start the seventh. This kind of made sense as the first hitter was left-handed, Tyler Soderstrom. Whoops, Soderstrom goes deep. Surely Counsell will take Shōta out now, with switch-hitter Jonah Heim due up? Nope, Imanaga stays in. Heim also goes deep (this from a guy who came into the game batting .194/.263/.361) and now it’s 6-1, which is where we came in, with me thinking those sad thoughts.
Trent Thornton, who’s been solid out of the pen since being recalled, did issue a couple of walks and gave up a hit after relieving Imanaga, but got out of the inning with a foul popup by Langeliers.
Then the Cubs began their remarkable comeback.
Alex Bregman led off the seventh with a double. Ian Happ, who I just profiled here yesterday, followed with a colossal home run [VIDEO].
That ball was absolutely demolished [VIDEO].
The 446-foot homer, Happ’s team-leading 14th, was the longest by any Cub so far this year (previously: 444 feet by PCA last Saturday in St. Louis).
More on the two Cubs homers from BCB’s JohnW53:
The Cubs’ two home runs tonight, coming after two on Tuesday, gave them back-to-back games with multiple homers for the first time in 16 games, since May 15-16 on the South Side vs. the White Sox.
Those were their first in 20 games, since five in a row, April 21-25 (first three at home vs. Phillies, last two at Los Angeles vs. Dodgers).
So, the Cubs have hit multiple homers in back-to-back games twice in their last 37 games. And had lost all of the back-to-back games — until this one.
Okay, it’s 6-3. This… might be doable.
Thornton and Ryan Rolison got through the eighth 1-2-3, but the Cubs also went down in order in the bottom of the inning. Rolison, who’s also been a useful reliever this year, retired the A’s 1-2-3 in the ninth.
Three runs down. Three outs left. A difficult task.
Busch led off the inning with a double. Bregman flied to left for the first out. A double to the right-center field gap by Happ made it 6-4 [VIDEO].
Two runs down. Two outs left. Still not impossible!
A single by Nico Hoerner moved Happ to third. Now the tying run is on base. With Ballesteros at bat, Nico was thrown out trying to steal. It was reviewed, but ruled “call confirmed.” [VIDEO].
I understand why Nico did that — trying to stay out of a possible double play with Ballesteros, a slow runner, at the plate. It almost worked.
Moisés came through with an RBI single [VIDEO].
That came really close to ending the game, but neither A’s middle infielder could handle Ballesteros’ grounder. Now it’s 6-5. One run down, one out still remaining, the tying run on first now represented by Kevin Alcántara, who ran for Ballesteros.
Seiya Suzuki, who was given a break from starting in this game, batted for DH Pedro Ramirez. Suzuki singled, with Alcántara stopping at second. Now the tying run is in scoring position.
That brought up Dansby Swanson, who had looked pretty bad at the plate in this game, with a fly out, strikeout and ground out.
Dansby came through, hitting this single that scored Alcántara to tie the game [VIDEO].
Really happy for Swanson, who has needed something to get him back on track. Maybe this hit will start something good for him. Suzuki took third on Swanson’s hit, the tying run 90 feet away, still with two out.
PCA, who’d had an, um, interesting night with his misplay in the field and a home run, had the crowd behind him, loudly chanting his name.
It was, as noted above, the first Cubs walk-off win down three in the ninth in nearly eight years, since the famous Bote grand slam. In some ways this one was more amazing, since they did it without a home run — two doubles and five singles. After going 0-for-3 in the first inning with RISP, the Cubs were 6-for-7 with RISP the rest of the game — Happ’s home run and five of the seven hits in the ninth. Don’t forget to give credit to Thornton and Rolison for keeping the A’s at six runs, allowing the hitters to make this comeback.
Also, this is fun (Bluesky link):
Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
Will this give the Cubs any “momentum”? I put that in quotes because the old saying is, “Momentum is only as good as your next day’s starting pitcher.” But if the Cubs do go on a run, and somehow claw back to the top of the NL Central, I think we can look back at this game as where it all started.
The Cubs open a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field. The Giants just split a four-game set against the Brewers, losing one game 16-2 and winning another 12-9. Let’s hope the Giants left all their offense in Milwaukee. Edward Cabrera will be activated from the injured list to start Friday for the Cubs. Robbie Ray will go for San Francisco. Game time is 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network (and MLB Network outside the Cubs and Giants market territories).
