Cubs avoid – With Pete Crow-Armstrong correcting a rare center-field miscue and Dansby Swanson snapping out of a rough stretch, the Cubs rallied from a 6-1 deficit to beat the A’s 7-6 on a walk-off at Wrigley Field and avoid a sweep.
Thursday night looked like it was about to finish the Cubs off.
Pete Crow-Armstrong — usually steady in center — made a rare fielding gaffe, losing a fly ball that dropped behind him and went for an inside-the-park home run. Shota Imanaga then got tagged for four home runs, and the deficit ballooned to 6-1.
A loss would have pushed Chicago to last place in the NL Central, and not by much — by the smallest of percentage points. For a team built around championship-level expectations, that was an unthinkable landing spot.
Then the Cubs refused to stay down.
They scored four runs in the ninth on seven hits and came all the way back to win 7-6, walking off the A’s at Wrigley Field to avoid a sweep.
“Whenever you get to run and jump around like little kids,” Crow-Armstrong said, “it’s always a blast.”
He was the center of it again. After the defensive miscue, he found redemption quickly — hitting a homer of his own. “The first time it’s happened to me here. Pretty helpless feeling,” Crow-Armstrong said of the error. “But it’s about moving on. There’s not much you can do about that except hope you see it next time.”.
He added that he’s grown from how he used to handle moments like that. “In the past, I might have dwelled on that, and that always ends up affecting how you go about the rest of your day. People having my back, me not hiding from the next at-bat, I’m growing up a little bit and proud of that.”
Three innings later, Crow-Armstrong delivered the knock that changed the night. His game-winning RBI single capped a ninth inning that flipped the script from disaster to momentum.
“We’ve stayed in the fight all year. And we’ve been fighting through these last couple weeks,” Crow-Armstrong said. “This kind of stuff is exactly what we’re capable of.”
The Cubs didn’t frame Thursday’s win as a simple reset after a bad stretch. It felt more like a statement that the version of this team fans were sold on still exists.
They’d come into the night with a 5-18 stretch weighing on them. Earlier in the season. walk-off outcomes had been a habit: the Cubs won six of their first 37 games in walk-off fashion. The previous one before Thursday came May 6. Two days after that, they were 15 games north of .500 on a 10-game winning streak.
The goal now was to make that earlier rhythm feel normal again.
“This is who we are,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “For the last three weeks, we’ve not been that. So for everyone to get [to see]. ‘Hey. this is what we’ve been talking about. this is what we’ve been working toward. this is what this group is capable of. ’ to have that show up in so many different ways. from so many different guys in the lineup … that’s what this group is about.”.
Swanson, who carried a .183 batting average into Thursday and has been the biggest target for frustrated fan complaints, tied the game in the ninth with a two-out RBI single.
“For us to come through and get that win is not only something we can build off of but the reminder that this is who we are. That’s so important when times are like this.”
Wrigley Field made the volume match the stakes. Swanson’s reaction was visible as soon as the hit landed — screaming and pumping his fist at first base, a celebration that matched the feeling of a team finally breaking through again.
Manager Craig Counsell said the moment mattered just as much in the context of what Swanson had been carrying.
“I’m most happy for Dansby, obviously,” Counsell said. “It’s been rough. But he came up big, and it was a huge hit and a really good at-bat.”
Counsell also acknowledged the other emotion that lingered in the air. “He’s fired up we won, but I think there was a little bit of that other thing in there, too, no doubt about it.”
Even the decision-making around Swanson carried weight. Counsell was asked whether he considered making a pinch-hit move, given the moment and how much was riding on it — especially after a rough couple of weeks.
“No,” Counsell said. “It was Dansby’s at-bat.”
Thursday’s walk-off win turned redemption into a theme, and it naturally left one question hanging over the clubhouse: is this the end of it?
Will the Cubs put the sorry stretch behind them and turn the season around?
“You never know,” Crow-Armstrong said. “You’ve just got to wait and see.”
Counsell kept the focus closer to the only thing that matters next. “That’s too big a statement for me. We’ve got to come and play a game tomorrow,” Counsell said. “Hopefully we tell that story in October.”
Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field Oakland Athletics Pete Crow-Armstrong Dansby Swanson Shota Imanaga NL Central walk-off win Craig Counsell baseball
Walk-off saves everything like always… Wrigley magic i guess.
Wait so they were down 6-1 and still won?? That’s wild. I swear center field errors are like contagious lol.
Imanaga giving up four HRs and then they come back?? Sounds like bullpen just decided to wake up late. Also Crow-Armstrong “rare” miscue like it wasn’t his fault at all… idk I didn’t watch the whole thing.
This headline makes it sound like they “avoided last place” but isn’t that still basically last place if they lose again next week? Like percentages and all that confuse me. Also inside-the-park HR just feels like the kind of thing that shouldn’t happen… unless the other team’s cheating or the stadium is cursed. Congrats though I guess.