Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a walk-off win at Wrigley Field.
For the 12th time this season, the Cubs won in walk-off fashion, topping the White Sox on Pete Crow-Armstrong’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning Monday, grabbing a 7-5 victory in the first of this week’s three Crosstown games.
The Cubs forced extra innings on shortstop Nico Hoerner’s RBI base hit in the bottom of the ninth but couldn’t add another run despite loading the bases with one out.
The decisive tally came an inning later, when Crow-Armstrong lifted his second homer of the game over the fence and sending Wrigley into pandemonium.
It was a dramatic, back-and-forth affair all night.
Crow-Armstrong and right fielder Seiya Suzuki hit back-to-back homers in the first inning to give the Cubs an early 2-0 lead.
Lefty starter Shota Imanaga’s struggles with the home-run ball continued earlier in the game, the three-run, game-flipping long ball he surrendered to Randal Grichuk the 29th dinger he’s allowed this season, one shy of the major league lead.
Hoerner briefly put the Cubs back in front with his tapped grounder in the fifth inning, which ended up bringing home a pair of runs when left fielder Ian Happ scored from first on Miguel Vargas’ throwing error.
But for the second time on the night, a Cubs hurler couldn’t hold a small lead, with Ryan Zeferjahn serving up a pinch-hit, go-ahead homer to Andrew Benintendi in the eighth inning. Zeferjahn has now allowed five runs in six appearances since coming over from the Angels at the beginning of the month.
The other three Cubs relievers to pitch Monday allowed nothing, with go-to relief weapon Jacob Webb pitching a scoreless top of the 10th – his 22nd straight scoreless appearance – and stranding the bases loaded.