The Cubs’ 9-7 win over the Orioles Wednesday evening, their third straight and 18th in their last 24, had a little bit of everything the 2026 season to date has provided.
Lots of homers? Check.
Some great defense? Check.
Some dodgy relief work, pointing out the need for bullpen improvements? Double-check, because the Cubs came close to blowing a six-run seventh-inning lead, yikes.
All right, since that didn’t happen, let’s begin at the beginning.
Neither team scored in the first two innings, though the Cubs
might have on this drive by Alex Bregman in the first [VIDEO].
That was a tremendous catch by Taylor Ward. It’s not totally clear from the clip, but Ward might have stolen a home run from Bregman. At least Bregman is starting to drive the ball again. Good things should follow.
Then the Cubs got on the board in the third, thanks to Pete Crow-Armstrong’s 20th homer of the season [VIDEO].
For PCA, that makes him the first MLB player this year with a 20/20 season and also gives him this accomplishment:
Pretty, pretty cool, I’d say. PCA’s going to be a candidate for Player of the Week again if he keeps this up. One more fact about PCA’s third-inning homer from BCB’s JohnW53:
The Cubs went 157 plate appearances without a homer from the last of the eight vs. the Padres on July 1 until Pete Crow-Armstrong’s in the third inning Wednesday night.
The Orioles tied the game off Colin Rea in the bottom of the third, scoring a run on a double play. Then Rea gave up a two-run homer to Pete Alonso in the fourth that gave Baltimore a 3-1 lead. For Alonso it was his 16th career homer off Cubs pitching, the most off any team not in the NL East, where he used to make his home.
The Cubs came roaring back to take the lead in the fifth with three more long balls of their own.
Michael Conforto led off the fifth with his eighth of the year on the first pitch of the inning [VIDEO].
That made it 3-2 and on the very next pitch, Carson Kelly tied the game with his fifth [VIDEO].
Two pitches, two runs, pretty efficient! More on these two homers from John:
The homers by Michael Conforto and Carson Kelly were just the Cubs’ second back-to-back blasts this season. The previous pair were by Alex Bregman and Ian Happ on March 29, at home vs. the Natiionals.
The Cubs hit 16, 12, 20, 10 and 10 pairs in the last five seasons. They have homered back-to-back 408 times in the regular season since 1876, plus 11 sets of back-to-back-to-back, for a total of 419 sets of consecutive homers.
After Dansby Swanson grounded out, PCA went deep again for No. 21 [VIDEO].
And just like that, the Cubs had the lead again.
Rea was removed with one out in the sixth with another decent outing, the only real mistake the home run pitch to Alonso. Drew Pomeranz finished up the sixth without incident and then the Cubs blew the game open — or so we thought! — with a five-run seventh.
With one out, Carson Kelly walked and Dansby Swanson singled. The O’s called on Grant Wolfram, who had faced 113 batters before this game and walked four of them. Of course that meant he walked the first hitter he faced, PCA. (And you think the Cubs have bullpen issues. Well, yes, they do, but so do a lot of other teams!)
That loaded the bases for Bregman [VIDEO].
The sac fly made it 5-3, and both trailing runners moved up. Michael Busch walked to load the bases again — that means within three batters, Wolfram had walked half as many as he had for the entire season before this game.
Then Wolfram gave the Cubs another run on this wild pitch [VIDEO].
This was Grant Wolfram’s night to do stuff he hadn’t done all year. Before this game he had not allowed a single home run, as noted, among 113 batters faced. That streak reached 116 with the three batters faced in this game up to this point.
Seiya Suzuki ended that streak by launching this monster three-run shot [VIDEO].
The Cubs had a six-run lead heading to the bottom of the eighth. You would think that would be enough.
My friends, it almost wasn’t. Pomeranz, left in to throw the seventh, allowed a home run to Tyler O’Neill that made it 9-4, and then two more singles before he was replaced with Trent Thornton. Thornton finished off the inning, but not before he gave up an RBI single, the run charged to Pomeranz. Still, it’s 9-5 going to the eighth. What could possibly…
Don’t finish that question and don’t answer it. Two more O’s homers off Caleb Thielbar — who’s really not having a good year at all — made it 9-7. That included O’Neill’s second homer of the game, and the fourth Orioles long ball to add to the Cubs’ five homers on the evening. And things could have been worse. After the homers, with two out Jackson Holliday doubled, bringing Gunnar Henderson to the plate as the potential tying run.
Henderson hit a line drive up the middle… and Swanson made this spectacular diving catch to end the inning [VIDEO].
Right there, that could have saved the game.
But could the Cubs record three outs in the ninth without giving up two runs?
Well, you now know the answer to that. Jacob Webb, who’s done a decent job filling in as closer for Daniel Palencia, recorded the first two outs of the ninth, both ground balls, on just four pitches. Then he ran a 1-2 count on Alonso… at which time some idiot ran onto the field. As is normal policy for TV channels, Marquee correctly didn’t show this, though Boog and JD said this person was wearing Cubs garb. Don’t do that. Just don’t. Seriously.
Anyway, when order was restored Webb got Alonso to hit a dribbler to end the game [VIDEO].
For Webb, that was his, uh, team-leading fourth save. So, yay?
Sure, yay. Someone’s got to do the job. But clearly, in addition to needing some rotation help, the Cubs need bullpen reinforcements. Some might come when injured relievers (including Palencia) return. But Jed Hoyer should also be exploring the trade market for relief pitchers.
Here’s PCA on his homers and Dansby’s defense [VIDEO].
One last note, this one on the Cubs’ five-homer game, from John:
After hitting five home runs in a 6-0 win over the Red Sox at Wrigley Field on July 19, 2025, the Cubs did not hit five again in 149 consecutive game. Now they have done it in three of their last seven: five on June 30, eight on July 1 and five vs. the Orioles — with none in the four games between the last two.
The Cubs picked up a game on the Brewers, who lost Wednesday to the Cardinals, and trail Milwaukee by six games, while still leading the third-place Cardinals by 3.5 games. The Cubs also lead the Phillies by 1.5 games for the top wild card spot.
All’s well that ends well, though, and the Cubs continue to find ways to win. They’ll go for the series sweep Thursday afternoon — and that’s a change, the game’s been moved up to 12:35 p.m. CT due to impending weather in Baltimore Thursday evening, as noted here last night. David Peterson gets the start for the Cubs and Trevor Rogers goes for the O’s. TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network and the BCB game preview will post at 11 a.m. CT.
