The Cubs began a six-game homestand on a sultry, humid Monday at Wrigley Field coming off a very successful 6-1 road trip.
And then the bats fell mostly silent and you could have been forgiven if you thought, “Here we go again.”
In the end, though, the Cubs got solid pitching from Shōta Imanaga and the bullpen and just enough offense. Seiya Suzuki’s walk-off single in the ninth inning gave the Cubs their third win in a row and 13th in their last 17 games, 3-2 over the Padres. The team’s record in one-run
games improved to 15-9.
The first two innings were scoreless, and the Cubs again failed to take advantage of an early runner in scoring position. Pete Crow-Armstrong led off the first with a walk and Alex Bregman singled. But Michael Busch was called out on strikes (after a Padres ABS challenge) and Suzuki hit into a double play.
The Padres took a 1-0 lead in the third, and then three San Diego hits in the fourth made it 2-0 off Imanaga.
That was all the Padres would score.
The Cubs got one run back in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Suzuki doubled. One out later, afer Nico Hoerner was hit by a pitch, a single by Michael Conforto scored Suzuki [VIDEO].
The Cubs tied the game up in the fifth. Dansby Swanson led off the inning with a double. One out later, the bases were loaded on a pair of walks to Bregman and Busch.
Suzuki lifted a sac fly to center, scoring Swanson [VIDEO].
Remember when PCA lost a fly ball in the lights a few weeks ago? Same time of the evening, same thing happened to Jackson Merrill of the Padres. He recovered to catch the ball, otherwise multiple runs might have scored on that play.
Both teams had scoring chances in the sixth. The Padres got their first two runners on via hit, but Imanaga retired the next three in order. The Cubs had the bases loaded with two out in the bottom of the inning, but Bregman flied to deep right field [VIDEO].
Imanaga was lifted with one out in the seventh. He did allow nine hits, but didn’t walk anyone and struck out for. Best of all, on a warm, breezy evening with the wind blowing out at 15 miles per hour, he kept the ball in the yard, not allowing a home run. More on Imanaga’s evening from BCB’s JohnW53:
This was just the sixth of Imanga’s 71 starts as a Cub in which he gave up at least nine hits. The Cubs were 1-4 in the previous five. The win was by 5-4 over the Cardinals on Aug. 1, 2024, when he gave up 10 hits in 6.2 innings. All six games were in Chicago: five at Wrigley Field and one, with a career-high 12 hits, on the South Side vs. the White Sox on July 25 of last year.
This was Imanaga’s seventh quality start, three more than any other Cub. Edward Cabrera and Jameson Taillon have four; Ben Brown and Colin Rea, three; Javier Assad, two; Matthew Boyd and Cade Horton, one. The Cubs began Monday with 24 QS, tied with Reds for 23rd most. Blue Jays were next, with 19. Astros led Cubs by one, with 25. Dodgers led all teams by far, with 47. Red Sox had 39; Royals, 38; and Mariners, 37
And more on Imanaga’s outing [VIDEO].
Gavin Hollowell, just returned due to an injury to Ethan Roberts, struck out Fernando Tatis Jr. and Samad Taylor to end the seventh. But the Cubs also went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of that inning.
The Padres loaded the bases off Hollowell and Caleb Thielbar in the eighth, but Thielbar then got Freddy Fermin to pop to Hoerner in short right to end the inning. The Cubs again went down 1-2-3 and at this point I suspect you were just hoping the Cubs could get the game to extras.
Trent Thornton entered to throw the ninth. With one out, Tatis singled off Nico’s glove. Miguel Amaya then threw out Tatis trying to steal second (“call stands” after review) [VIDEO].
So the Cubs are now in a situation where the only way they can win is by walk-off, something they’d already done nine times this year.
They got the winning run to scoring position on a couple of excuse-me hits. Swanson hit a ball that Manny Machado couldn’t handle, ruled a single. PCA blooped an opposite-field single [VIDEO].
The Padres summoned Mason Miller, possibly the most unhittable pitcher in the game today. Miller entered this game having allowed only 14 hits in 129 total batters faced, and he’d struck out 66 of them, a ridiculous 51.1 percent strikeout rate.
The first batter he faced was Bregman, who, as you know, has struggled all year.
Bregman smacked a no-doubt line drive single up the middle, loading the bases.
Swanson appeared to go on his own; you can see third-base coach Quintin Berry not make any signal to him at all. The ball was very shallow in left and personally, I thought it was a bad idea to go.
Both PCA and Bregman moved up on that play, and Suzuki then ended the game with this long drive to left [VIDEO].
That missed being a three-run homer by maybe six feet. The resulting single was good enough for the Cubs’ 10th walk-off win of the season. Walk-off notes from John:
This was Suzuki’s 601st game as a Cub. He had one walk-off in his previous 600, a 10th-inning single that beat the Blue Jays, 6-5, on Aug. 16, 2024.
The Cubs have had:
10 walk-offs this year
1,007 since 1876
909 in the Modern Era (began 1901)
804 at Wrigley Field (home since 1916)
966 total at home
41 on road (in early days, the home team did not always bat first)
The franchise record for walk-off wins is 14, set in 1930. That one seems within reach. The MLB record is 17, set by the Pirates in 1959 and tied by them in 1977. Even that one might be approached by this year’s Cardiac Cubs.
It’s also just the fourth time this year, in 33 games, that a team had two or more hits off Miller, and the first time they did it with just three batters facing him. It’s also one of just four times this year that Miller didn’t strike out anyone.
Here are Suzuki’s postgame remarks [VIDEO].
And here are postgame comments from Craig Counsell [VIDEO].
The Cubs maintained pace with the Brewers, who also won Monday, and remain 5.5 games out of first place. They also took over the top wild card spot from the Phillies, who lost Monday. The Cubs and Phillies are now tied with records of 47-38, but the Cubs have the tie-breaker over the Phillies.
One last thing I’d like to note: PCA walked twice in this game, the sixth time he’s had at least two walks in a game. He had just two such games all of last year. Here’s how much better PCA is at drawing walks this year:
He’s become a really good leadoff hitter. Well done.
The Cubs will go for four wins in a row and a series win over the Padres Tuesday evening at Wrigley Field. Matthew Boyd will start for the Cubs and JP Sears will go for San Diego. Game time is again 7:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
