Just 10 days ago, we had a game at Wrigley Field, the walk-off win against the Blue Jays — that many were calling “the game of the year.”
This one, Monday’s walk-off 7-5, 10-inning win over the White Sox, might have topped that. And both were keyed by Pete Crow-Armstrong, who over and over and over is making his case for the National League’s MVP award.
This one had just about everything, including four lead changes, so let’s get right to it.
Shōta Imanaga had an easy 1-2-3 first inning and then the Cubs
got right to work in the bottom of the inning.
PCA hit Luis Castillo’s first pitch out of the yard [VIDEO].
That was not even close to the most excitement the Cubs center fielder would provide on this night. It was the third time this year PCA homered on the game’s first pitch and his fifth leadoff home run overall.
Four pitches later, Seiya Suzuki made it back-to-back jacks [VIDEO].
Back-to-back facts from BCB’s JohnW53:
Monday’s game was the 59th time since 1876 that the Cubs hit back-to-back homers in the first inning.
It was the 57th since 1901 and the 27th since 2000.
The last time had been by Ian Happ (two-run) and Moisés Ballesteros on Sept. 17 of last season at home vs. the Pirates.
The last by the first two hitters were by Happ and Kyle Tucker on June 21 of last year vs. the Mariners. The other times by the first two batters:
Sept. 27, 1995: Luis Gonzalez and Jose Hernandez at home vs. Cardinals
April 27, 2000: Eric Young Sr. and Ricky Gutierrez at Houston (later in the inning, Henry Rodrigeuz hit a two-run and Damon Buford hit a solo, not back to back)
May 13, 2009: Alfonso Soriano and Ryan Theriot at home vs. Padres (tied score at 2)
June 14, 2017: Anthony Rizzo and Ian Happ at New York vs. Mets
That’s where the score stayed until the fourth inning. Imanaga had retired nine of the first 10 White Sox, then issued a leadoff walk to Munetaka Murakami in the fourth. Leadoff walks rarely lead to good things for the pitcher issuing them and that was the case here, as Miguel Vargas singled and Randal Grichuk, who always hit well at Wrigley when with the Cardinals, smashed a three-run homer to give the Sox the lead.
The Cubs took the lead back in the fifth thanks to some sketchy Sox fielding. Suzuki led off with a walk — now the Cubs have the opportunity to take advantage of that. One out later, Alex Bregman singled, with Suzuki stopping at second. Suzuki then took third on a force play by Ian Happ.
That brought up Nico Hoerner [VIDEO].
Suzuki scored on the little dribbler of a hit, and when Vargas made a bad throw to first, Happ alertly came around to score and the Cubs had a 4-3 lead.
Imanaga completed six innings and, I thought, threw pretty well apart from the one pitch to Grichuk. He struck out 10, one short of his season high [VIDEO].
Here’s more on Imanaga’s outing [VIDEO].
And more from John:
This was Imanaga’s sixth career game with double-digit strikeouts, in 79 starts.
He had 11 twice, on Sept. 16, 2024, at home vs. the Athletics, and April 15 of this year, at Philadelphia. He pitched 6.0 innings in both games.
His first two games with exactly 10 whiffs were in 2024, in 7.0 innings. He did it again in 6.0 innings on May 7 at home vs. the Reds.
This was the first of the six games in which he gave up more than two runs. He has given up exactly one homer in each of the games.
…..
Imanga’s quality start was his 11th, nearly double the next-most of six by Matthew Boyd and Colin Rea. The Cubs have had a total of 40, by 11 different starters.
The game was turned over to Ryan Rolison, who retired the first two hitters he faced, then walked Jake Rogers. That brought in Ryan Zeferjahn, as the lefty Rolison wasn’t going to face Chase Meidroth. Zeferjahn got Meidroth to hit a line drive, but right at Nico, to end the inning.
The Cubs had a chance to increase their lead in the seventh. Bregman led off with a single, his third hit of the game. Happ sacrificed him to second. That was just the sixth sac bunt by the Cubs this year, tied for fewest in MLB with the Tigers. Hoerner singled, but nor far enough for Bregman to score so Alex stopped at third, and then this happened [VIDEO].
Bregman strayed too far from third as Nico tried to steal second and Rogers picked him off. Interesting to hear Len Kasper’s call on CHSN.
Zeferjahn walked Murakami leading off the eighth. As noted, those almost never turn into anything good for the team issuing them, and once again… it happened. One out later, pinch-hitter Andrew Benintendi homered to give the Sox a 5-4 lead.
The Cubs didn’t score in the eighth despite a two-out double by PCA, his third hit of the game.
David Peterson had entered in relief in the eighth, retired the last Sox hitter of that inning, then had a scoreless ninth helped out by a double play after yet another leadoff walk — the fifth such walk the Cubs had issued in nine innings.
Then the Cubs put together a game-tying rally in the ninth. Bregman walked with one out and was replaced by pinch-runner Tyrone Taylor. Happ followed with a walk, putting the tying run in scoring position.
Nico’s single tied the game 5-5 [VIDEO].
That put Happ on third as the potential winning run with one out. Pedro Ramirez was intentionally passed, an interesting strategy with only one out — a walk then would have won the game. Miguel Amaya was sent up as a pinch-hitter, but he struck out, and Carson Kelly hit into a force play to send the game to extras.
Jacob Webb, who’s been so good at closing, entered to throw the 10th. Meidroth was the Sox placed runner. Webb walked Murakami — the sixth leadoff walk the Sox had drawn in this game. But Webb then struck out Vargas and Benintendi. Two out — and then yet another walk, the eighth issued by Cubs pitching on this night, loading the bases.
Webb got out of the inning with this grounder to first [VIDEO].
With no bench players available, Kelly had to be the placed runner for the Cubs in the bottom of the 10th. During the inning break, fans began chanting “PCA! PCA!”
He did not disappoint. It took four pitches from Hagen Smith, the fourth a slider up and out over the plate and PCA smashed it for his 30th homer, a memorable walk-off [VIDEO].
More on the walk-off from John:
Pete Crow-Armstrong last night became the first Cub ever to hit a home run as the first batter of the game, then hit a walk-off homer to win it.
Only one previous Cub homered to start a game and then walked it off: Eddie Miksis, on June 10, 1956, against the Phillies. He singled in the 11th inning with two outs and a runner on third for a 2-1 victory.
In three games, a Cub hit a leadoff homer and a teammate produced the walk-off:
April 22, 1980, vs. Cardinals: Ivan de Jesus, leadoff homer; Barry Foote, walk-off grand slam with two outs in ninth for 16-12 win
May 9, 2004, vs. Rockies: Damian Jackson, leadoff homer; Corey Patterson, walk-off single with bases loaded and two outs in 13th for 5-4 win
May 26, 2015, vs. Nationals: Dexter Fowler, leadoff homer; Addison Russell walk-off double with runner on second and two outs in ninth for 3-2 win
The 1980 game is the only one before last night in which the Cubs had leadoff and walk-off home runs.
…..
This was the Cubs’ 12th walk-off win of the season. They had 14 in 1930, 13 in 1932 and 2015 and 12 in 1915.It was their:
1,009th in the regular-season since 1876
911th since 1901, first year of the Modern Era
806th at Wrigley Field
962nd at home
197th on a home run, including 187 since 1901 and 183 at Wrigley
And still more:
Sometimes people ask me why I go to every single game, sit in freezing weather in April, endure awful losses like the one on Sunday… THIS is why. It’s for moments like this, special games that I will remember forever. You can’t really know how LOUD it was at Wrigley after the walk-off homer, the video clips don’t capture the entire scene, things like this are well worth those frigid nights, all the terrible seasons I’ve witnessed… Pete Crow-Armstrong is a special player, he’s the likely league MVP and we are watching what very likely is one of the greatest seasons ever by a Cubs position player.
He joined the 30/30 Club for the second time. Sammy Sosa is the only other Cub to do that. His career high in homers is 31 (last year), he’ll likely top that easily. He stole a base in this game, his 31st, that career high is 35, also last year.
More from PCA after the game [VIDEO].
You know, Taylor McGregor is right. PCA is like a big kid celebrating when things like that happen, and that’s also special. It’s good at times like this to remember that’s part of what makes baseball so great — it makes us all feel like that little kid growing up loving this game. Here’s to many more moments just like that one. Imanaga, I think, sums it up for all of us:
“I don’t think I’ve ever met a player like that,” Cubs starter Shota Imanaga said through the team interpreter. “Expectations you might have for him, he always surpasses them.”
Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame remarks [VIDEO].
Both Counsell and PCA mentioned the atmosphere at Wrigley. It was absolutely electric, many Sox fans in attendance and they, too, were loud when their players hit homers. It was reasonably peaceful except for one pretty nasty fight in the right-field bleachers late in the game. Fortunately, Wrigley security addressed it quickly.
Cubs and Sox fans did find something to agree on, anyway — several chants of “Green Bay sucks” were heard during the game.
This was not only the game of the year, but I think important for the Cubs after two deflating losses against the Cardinals. No question, the White Sox are a good team this year and fighting for their own division title and defeating them in this way, hopefully, gives the Cubs a leg up for the rest of the series.
And that continues this evening at Wrigley Field. Kevin Gausman will make his first Wrigley start as a member of the Cubs. At this writing the Sox do not have a starter listed. From Paul Sullivan in the Tribune:
On Monday afternoon, Venable wasn’t sure who would start Tuesday’s game against the Cubs, though Erick Fedde and José Urquidy were possibilities.
“We really are day-to-day here with this just because of the usage we have had over this last series and then just not having really starters,” Venable said.
So we’ll see. Game time Tuesday is again 7:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network, also on CHSN and WCIU-Ch. 26 with the Sox announcers — and there’s also a national broadcast on TBS outside the Cubs/White Sox shared market territory.
Good times. Here’s to more wins.
