Man, What Do You Even Say About This Cubs Run Anymore?
The Cubs have already lost players to elbow and knee surgeries, but they’d better not see any doctors about removing the horseshoe that’s been firmly lodged up their backside for the better part of a month. After walking off the Reds for the third consecutive game on Wednesday night, they are now just one win behind the Braves for the best record in baseball.
Per Marquee’s Christopher Kamka, this is the first time they’ve had three straight walk-offs since June 18-20, 2009. The Cubs carried a 6-5 win over the White Sox into a weekend series with the Indians (that’s what they were called at the time, just in case anyone quibbles), and they victimized a former and future Cubs great in both games. That’s right, Kerry Wood blew two saves.
Wait, the same guy who threw out the first pitch and led the 7th Inning Stretch Wednesday night on the anniversary of his 20-strikeout performance? Yes, that’s the one.
Rich Harden started against Cliff Lee in the first of those games against Cleveland, and Derrek Lee hit a game-tying homer against Wood in the bottom of the 9th to push the game to extras. That’s when Ryan Theriot singled home Alfonso Soriano to put the Cubs over the top.
The following game saw Theodore Roosevelt Lilly III start against Tomo Ohka, but it was the bullpens that would factor most heavily in the 13-inning affair. Neither team scored from innings 7-12, until former Cubs great Luis Valbuena homered against Cubs reliever David Patton to put the road team on top. Kosuke Fukudome led off the bottom of the inning with a single against Wood, then stole second and advanced to third on a bad throw. Andrés Blanco singled him home, advanced to third on an Aaron Miles knock, then scored on a wild pitch.
Talk about some blasts from the past. Now back to the present, but only briefly.
According to Cubs historian Ed Hartig, this is the first time the Cubs have walked the same team off in three straight since 1943 against the Giants. Those games apparently took place on September 27 and 28, with the latter featuring a doubleheader. Baseball Reference does not identify the second game of the twin bill as a walk-off, but it has to have been because they scored two runs in the bottom of the 9th to win.
Forgive the lack of any game descriptions, but no play logs exist. Besides, it’s not quite as fun to name-drop Andy Pafko, Dom Dallessandro, and Joe Medwick. Unless any of our readers were born in the early 1900s, in which case I’ll offer a hearty congratulations for being alive and able to navigate the internet.
You get further congratulations for surviving all of these close calls over the last few weeks, as the Cubs now have six walk-offs out of their 14 straight home wins. Last night’s was one of the tightest, as they entered the bottom of the 9th down two runs following a very rough outing from Corbin Martin. The righty allowed a leadoff homer to Spencer Steer that pulled the Reds within one, then he allowed consecutive singles before giving way to Hoby Milner.
A sac bunt pushed both runners into scoring position, then a JJ Bleday single tied the game. Next was a play you don’t see very often, as Elly De La Cruz hit a very deep fly to right that sent Seiya Suzuki into the wall and then to the ground. Tyler Stephenson tagged from third, and Matt McLain came all the way around from second — something we might have expected from former Reds (and Cubs!) great Billy Hamilton a decade or so ago — to build a two-run lead.
To most, it probably looked as though the streak was about to end. But not to all…
Cubs down in the 9th? pic.twitter.com/zAUYClSdrJ
— Evan Altman (@DEvanAltman) May 7, 2026
In the interest of full disclosure, it was really just an excuse to use a GIF from that supremely odd scene in The Lost Boys. Timmy Cappello, the uber-yoked saxophonist in the clip, isn’t just some Muscle Beach rando who dual-screened Pumping Iron and Kenny G videos to prep for this infamous role. He’s actually an accomplished musician who was in Tina Turner’s band and also worked with Peter Gabriel.
My belief was staggered a bit when Michael Busch struck out to open the bottom of the 9th, but then Carson Kelly smacked a single to right. Then, after whiffing badly at a slider in the dirt to run the count full, Pete Crow-Armstrong went down and got another low breaking ball that stayed over the plate. It didn’t appear as though he’d gotten all of it at first, but the ball kept carrying until he landed in the bleachers to tie the game.
PETE, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?!?! pic.twitter.com/q90ZZAVXjA
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) May 7, 2026
Seriously, it looks almost like he’s trying to backspin a wedge onto the green. Or maybe that’s just what I see because my attempts to do so end up flying way farther than I’d hoped. Either way, it got the job done. But only temporarily, as the Cubs failed to score again. Then the Reds were unable to push the Manfred Man across, setting the stage for a literal walk-off.
Lefty Brock Burke, who used to host a show on E! called Wild On!, was greeted by a Miguel Amaya sac bunt that pushed Nico Hoerner to third with one out. Alex Bregman was intentionally walked to set up a double play, then Ian Happ struck out. Reds manager Tito Francona then opted to intentionally walk Suzuki to get to the left-handed-hitting Busch, which followed standard baseball logic.
As hot as Suzuki has been, though, that felt a touch over-manager-y to me. Burke is a reverse-split pitcher who came into the game with a 30th-percentile walk rate, so it probably would have been better for him to at least get a crack at Suzuki. While I get that loading the bases creates a force anywhere, making it a pretty simple decision for any skipper, I prefer to buck convention now and again. Busch saw only five pitches, and the one he took for a strike just barely clipped the zone, drawing a free pass to end the game.
It was yet another sterling example of what we’ve been saying for a while now about the Cubs making their own luck by doing all the little things well. Since April 12, when this home winning streak began, they lead MLB in runs (141), batting average (.282), OBP (.374), walk rate (11.5%), wOBA (.376), wRC+ (140), and fWAR (8.0). They are second in home runs (36) and slugging (.480), and third in RBI (129) and strikeout rate (19.0%). Not bad.
Even though it feels at times like they’re running on a treadmill that keeps gaining speed, what with all the injuries, they haven’t lost pace yet. The good thing about stacking all of these wins is that they can always step off to catch their breath for a bit before jumping back on for another sprint. And that’s what we expect from them at this point, right?
I guess that’s what has me struggling to find new ways to describe what they’re doing without hearkening back to a decade ago. But that’s the last time I can remember feeling like the Cubs had a chance to win every single time they took the field. Only four months to go before we find out exactly how far they can stretch that faith.
