The Cubs took advantage of the Braves deciding to save their ace Chris Sale for their weekend series against the Astros.
Instead, Atlanta sent minor-league callup J.R. Ritchie to face the Cubs. The Cubs had hit Ritchie pretty well when they faced him in Atlanta in May and they did so again Wednesday evening at Wrigley Field, touching him up for seven hits and six runs in 4.2 innings on their way to an 8-4 victory, taking the series two games to one. The game featured 12 Cubs hits, including Pete Crow-Armstrong
and Alex Bregman both hitting triples and home runs.
Once again, a Cubs starter struggled through the first inning. Shōta Imanaga allowed two hits but no runs in a 20-pitch first, but then he really settled down. More on this in a bit.
The Cubs got their offense going in the bottom of the first. PCA led off with a walk, but was erased when Seiya Suzuki hit into a double play. Michael Busch then also walked. He scored on this double by Bregman [VIDEO].
As you can see in the clip, Bregman got caught between second and third and was tagged out to end the inning.
Imanaga allowed a freak single with one out in the second when a ground ball that Bregman was about to field hit third base. After that, though, Shōta retired 11 Braves in a row before a leadoff double by Ronald Acuña Jr. in the sixth.
While all that was going on, the Cubs were posting a solid lead in the game. The 1-0 lead became 2-0 on PCA’s 43rd homer leading off the third [VIDEO].
That home run established a new Cubs franchise record for home runs in a season by a left-handed hitter, eclipsing Billy Williams’ 42 in 1970. And I can imagine no one was cheering louder for PCA’s record-breaker than Billy himself.
Another solo homer leading off the fourth made it 3-0. It was Bregman’s 26th of the year [VIDEO].
Then the Cubs blew the game open off Ritchie in the fifth. With one out, Carson Kelly singled.
PCA then tripled into the right-field corner, making it 4-0 [VIDEO].
On the next pitch, Suzuki got plunked. The crowd booed, though it almost certainly was not retaliation, just a young pitcher being wild. Busch struck out, but Bregman followed with the Cubs’ second triple of the inning, making it 6-0 [VIDEO].
That got me to wondering when was the last time the Cubs had two triples in an inning at Wrigley, so I asked BCB’s JohnW53 to look this up. It had been 15 years. Some of these names will amuse you:
The Cubs last hit two triples in the same inning at Wrigley Field in 2011— twice, both vs. the Cardinals:
May 11, fifth: Carlos Pena single, Starlin Castro triple, Alfonso Soriano single, Koyie Hill triple. Tyler Colvin groundout scored Hill to give Cubs 10-1 lead. They won, 11-4.
Aug. 19, seventh: Soriano groundout, Darwin Barney triple, pinch hitter Blake DeWitt triple to cut deficit to 4-3. Castro struck out and Reed Johnson grounded out. Cubs walked it off in 10th on one-out single by pinch hitter Tyler Colvin.Tonight’s game was the Cubs’ 1,181th at Wrigley since Aug. 19, 2011.
Back to Imanaga’s game. He allowed a leadoff double to Acuña in the sixth, and Acuña scored on a couple of ground outs. But Shōta finished off that inning with a strikeout of Ozzie Albies, his eighth K of the night on his 100th pitch, an excellent outing in which he didn’t walk anyone and didn’t allow any home runs.
Here are the eight strikeouts [VIDEO].
Here’s more on Imanaga’s evening [VIDEO].
Imanaga has thrown well over his last three starts: 2.00 ERA, 0.778 WHIP, 16 strikeouts and only two walks in 18 innings, with just two home runs allowed. If he keeps this up over what will probably be two more regular-season starts, he’s got to be considered for a postseason start as well.
Just for fun, here’s the Japanese language call of Imanaga’s eight K’s [VIDEO].
Aaron Civale relieved Imanaga and allowed a run in the seventh, which the Cub got back in the bottom of the inning on PCA’s 44th long ball of 2026 [VIDEO].
Later in that inning, Bregman came to bat with a chance to hit for the cycle — he needed just a single. Unfortunately, he flied to center to end the seventh.
The Cubs completed their scoring for the evening in the eighth. Tyrone Taylor led off with a double and one out later scored on this single by Michael Conforto [VIDEO].
The Cubs loaded the bases on singles by Pedro Ramirez and Kelly, but PCA struck out and Suzuki grounded out to end the inning.
Here’s where I’m going to open the complaint department door just a bit. Ryan Rolison began the ninth by issuing a walk and allowing a hit, which prompted Craig Counsell to call on Ryan Zeferjahn, who immediately gave up a two-run double to Mauricio Dubon.
I mean… when you have a six-run lead, it should be easier than that to protect. Fortunately, Zeferjahn retired the next three Braves in order to end the game. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].
A couple more game notes from John:
This is just the third time in their last 15 games that the Cubs have hit multiple home runs. They have hit a total of 15. The 15-game span began Sept. 1, the day after they hit a team-record nine vs. the Brewers.
The Cubs have hit three homers in 20 games and more than three in 20 more. They have hit two in 35 games, one in 55 and none in 42.
…..
Pete Crow-Armstrong’s game tonight was the 18th since 1901 in which a Cub hit at least one triple and at least two home runs. In all games, the players had one and two.PCA is the second Cub to turn the trick twice, joining Billy Williams. PCA did it April 13, 2025, at Los Angeles vs. the Dodgers. Williams did it June 17, 1964, and May 19, 1971, vs. the Giants, both at Wrigley Field.
The one-timers: Heinie Zimmerman (1910), Bill Nicholson (1944), Hank Sauer (1949), Walt Moryn (1956), Lou Brock (1963), Leon Durham (1982), Andre Dawson (1987), Shawon Dunston (1989), Todd Walker (1989), Kris Bryant (2017), Kyle Schwarber (2017), Seiya Suzuki (2024), Michael Busch (2025) and Dansby Swanson (2025)
Games like this should remove all doubt about PCA being voted NL MVP. The only question that remains, I think: Will that vote be unanimous? It really should, especially since the two-homer game put the Cubs center fielder just one home run behind Phillies DH Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead. PCA is also now at 9.6 bWAR for the season, which gives him a chance to be just the fourth Cubs position player to ever have a 10 bWAR season (he’s already there per Fangraphs, which has him at 10.4 fWAR).
Here are PCA’s postgame remarks [VIDEO].
And here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
To update you on the Wild Card race: The Diamondbacks lost, so the Cubs’ magic number to clinch a postseason spot is now 4. The Phillies and Padres also won, so the Cubs continue to lead the Phillies by half a game and the Padres by 1.5 games. The Phillies will open a four-game series against the Mets Thursday evening in New York while the Cubs are off, and so… and you’ll almost never hear these words here… let’s go Mets!
Walk watch: The Cubs walked three times Wednesday, giving them 643 for the season. They need 14 more walks in the nine remaining games to break the franchise record of 656. That record was set in 2016.
Run watch: The eight runs scored Wednesday give the Cubs 817 for the season. The most runs any Cubs team has scored since 1930 is 855, done in 2008, so 39 runs over the last nine games would surpass that for the most runs any Cubs team has scored in the last 96 years.
The Cubs will begin a three-game series against the Reds in Cincinnati Friday evening. At this writing the Cubs don’t have a starter officially listed, but it should be Clay Holmes’ turn. The Reds will go with Chase Burns. Game time Friday is 5:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network (and MLB Network outside the Cubs and Reds market territories).
