I keep telling you that there’s something special about this Cubs team.
Maybe if they keep pulling out wins like the one Wednesday night against the Reds, you’ll believe me. I almost have no words… oh, wait, I’ve got about 1,700 words to describe Wednesday’s amazing comeback win.
After the team had one of their worst innings of the entire season, blowing a two-run ninth-inning lead and … well, I’ll get to the rest of that… the Cubs tied the game up, got a solid scoreless inning from a pitcher who had just
arrived and was only there because of yet another injury, then won the game on a walk-off walk issued to Michael Busch. The Cubs’ 7-6, 10-inning win was their eighth in a row and their 14th straight at Wrigley Field.
Caught your breath yet? Let’s rewind to the beginning of this bonkers game.
Colin Rea walked the first batter of the game, TJ Friedl. That almost never winds up being a good thing, and it wasn’t in this case, as Friedl moved to second when Rea threw a pickoff attempt away and scored on a single by JJ Bleday.
The Cubs wasted no time in taking the lead back. The first two Cubs in the first grounded out, then Alex Bregman singled.
Ian Happ’s ninth home run of the year made it 2-1 Cubs [VIDEO].
Perspective: This was the Cubs’ 37th game of the year. Last year — when Happ hit 23 home runs — he hit his ninth in the team’s 75th game. The homer was the 182nd of his career, moving Happ ahead of Alfonso Soriano into 12th place on the franchise home run list. Next up: Hack Wilson, 190.
The Reds threatened in the third. Two singles put runners on first and third with nobody out. Rea struck out Bleday, then with the infield in, Busch made this good play [VIDEO].
More good Cubs defense in the fourth, this one from Dansby Swanson [VIDEO].
Did I mention good Swanson defense? He did it again that inning [VIDEO].
The Cubs made it 4-1 in the bottom of the inning. Happ led off with a single and scored on this double by Seiya Suzuki [VIDEO].
Suzuki moved to third on a single by Busch and scored when Carson Kelly hit into a double play [VIDEO].
Rea served up a home run ball to Matt McLain in the fifth to make the score 4-2. Rea was finally lifted with one out in the sixth after putting runners on by a walk and a single. He got one out on a ground ball, then Jacob Webb was summoned. Webb’s been pretty good lately and he got out of the inning with a pair of ground outs — the second, though, required this slick grab from Bregman [VIDEO].
The Cubs had a chance to extend the lead in the seventh. Pete Crow-Armstrong and Swanson began the inning with singles, but Nico Hoerner hit into a double play. Craig Counsell sent Matt Shaw up to bat against left-hander Sam Moll, but Terry Francona countered with Pierce Johnson, so Counsell sent Michael Conforto up to bat for Shaw. That’s something you used to see a lot, but not now with three-batter minimums and four-man benches.
Anyway, Conforto could not replicate his heroics of Monday; he grounded out to end the inning.
Phil Maton threw a 1-2-3 eighth. That’s good because, well, the Cubs need good relievers they can trust right now, what with all the injuries.
In the bottom of the eighth, Happ was robbed of extra bases by Friedl [VIDEO].
Tip o’ the cap there — that could have been a double or triple, instead it was a 402-foot out.
Then, the ninth. If I can be permitted to second-guess Counsell a bit, Webb had thrown only 14 pitches to record five outs. Perhaps he could have thrown the eighth and Maton the ninth. I agree with Counsell on not using Daniel Palencia on back-to-back days, yet, coming off his injury.
So it was Corbin Martin to try to save this game. Friends, you know he did not do that. He served up a leadoff homer to Spencer Steer, then allowed singles to Will Benson and pinch-hitter Tyler Stephenson. That was it for Martin, and Hoby Milner came on to protect what was now a one-run lead.
McLain attempted a bunt. Milner thought he had a play at third, and he might have, only he hesitated just for the tiniest moment and Benson was safe. Milner then struck out pinch-hitter Dane Myers, only to see Bleday hit a single, tying the game.
Okay, tie game, the Cubs got this one. Only… this happened [VIDEO].
Suzuki made a nice grab, then fell down. What you can’t see on the clip is that he flipped the ball to PCA, whose throw was too late to prevent two runs from scoring on Elly De La Cruz’s sacrifice fly.
The four-run ninth was a disaster, one of the Cubs’ worst innings of 2026, as noted above.
Did that matter? No, it did not!
Busch led off and was called out on strikes on a pitch overturned on a challenge. Then Kelly singled.
Then PCA came to bat. Listen to the audio of the clip here, Jim Deshaies was prescient [VIDEO].
In addition to tying the game, that was PCA’s first home run of the season at Wrigley Field (fourth overall). Here’s a cool field view of the homer [VIDEO].
With one out, the Cubs had a chance to walk it off in regulation, but Swanson popped up and Hoerner grounded out.
On to the 10th and Milner walked the first Reds hitter he faced. Now there are runners on first and second with nobody out. Trent Thornton was summoned. Raise your hand if you knew, when this day started, that Thornton would be pitching for the Cubs in this very high-leverage situation. (No, no you did not, he’s only there due to the injury to Matthew Boyd.)
Thornton did his job exceptionally well. He got Steer to hit into a double play. Pinch-runner Blake Dunn wound up on third, where he was stranded when Thornton got Benson to ground out. Thornton is 32 and signed a minor-league deal with the Cubs in January. He’s had some decent years in the past in Toronto and Seattle, and this outing, well, the Cubs need that “next man up” theory to hold and it did in this inning.
In the bottom of the ninth, Miguel Amaya was sent up to bat in the DH spot, for Conforto. Remember that Shaw had already been used, the only other bench bat was Nicky Lopez. Amaya was being sent up to sacrifice the placed runner (Nico), and he did so successfully. So now Hoerner’s on third with one out. The Reds chose to intentionally pass Bregman. Happ, though, struck out for the second out in the inning. The Reds then decided to intentionally pass Suzuki. You don’t see this sort of thing often in walk-off situations anymore; teams think it’s too big of a risk when, as was the case here, a walk ends the game.
Busch, who was the wak-off hero Tuesday, was the hitter. He ran a 3-0 count. One more ball and the Cubs win. The fourth pitch was close, and it appeared Busch had challenged — but the umpires didn’t allow it. Counsell came out for a discussion, but the game continued. As it turned out, the pitch was a strike, so the challenge wouldn’t have done anything. A very close pitch, but a strike:
Who knows? Maybe that brief delay by Counsell rattled Brock Burke a bit, because he threw pitch 5 way inside to Busch, and the Cubs had another win [VIDEO].
Just can’t say enough about this team. Even with that awful ninth, you had the feeling that somehow, this Cubs team would come back and win, and so they did. From BCB’s JohnW53:
Last night’s win made Monday-Wednesday just the fourth time since 1901 that Cubs have had three straight walk-offs vs. the same team:
Aug. 16-18, 1932, vs Braves
Aug. 28, 30 and 31, 1932 vs Giants
Sept. 27-28, 1943 vs Giants (doubleheader on 28th).They have had three straight walk-offs vs. different teams since then, most recently in 2009.
The injury to Boyd, noted above, will have some ripple effects, obviously. Javier Assad likely slots back into the rotation, and for now, Thornton takes his bullpen place. We’ll discuss over the next days and weeks where Jed Hoyer might go for starting pitching help. As for the pen, I’d think this game might be the end of Corbin Martin’s Cubs career — after starting out this year reasonably well (including a save against the Dodgers!), Martin’s last three outings have resulted in one total inning pitched, six hits, four walks, two home runs and six runs allowed for a 54.00 ERA. I’m not sure who the Cubs could add today to replace Martin — Ethan Roberts, currently on rehab assignment, threw an inning for Triple-A Iowa on Wednesday.
There will be more on WPA in Heroes and Goats at 10 a.m. CT, but check out this game’s chart (Bluesky link):
Here are postgame remarks from PCA [VIDEO].
And here are Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
One more note on the walk-off by Busch:
One more note on the streaking Cubs:
The Cubs now lead the NL Central by 3.5 games over the second-place Cardinals and five games over the Brewers, Reds and Pirates.
The Cubs will go for nine in a row, 15 straight at Wrigley, and a four-game sweep Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Shōta Imanaga will start for the Cubs and Rhett Lowder goes for the Reds. Game time is 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network (and MLB Network outside the Cubs and Reds market territories).
