Michael Busch drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs in the 10th inning and the Chicago Cubs beat the visiting Cincinnati Reds 7-6 on Wednesday for their eighth straight win.
Cincinnati moved ahead 6-4 after Spencer Steer sparked a four-run ninth inning with a leadoff homer. The Cubs pulled even in the bottom of the ninth on Pete Crow-Armstrong’s two-run homer against Graham Ashcraft.
Ian Happ went 3-for-5 with a two-run homer for the Cubs, who have opened the four-game series with three straight walk-off victories. Right-hander Trent Thornton (1-0) pitched a scoreless 10th inning for the win in his Cubs debut.
Chicago has won 14 straight games at Wrigley Field, matching the team’s longest home-winning streak since winning 14 in a row in 2008.
Matt McLain homered among his two hits for Cincinnati, which has lost a season-high six consecutive games and eight of its last 10.
Busch capped the Cubs’ victory by drawing a five-pitch walk from Brock Burke (1-2).
Cincinnati took the lead in the top of the ninth after Steer’s homer against Corbin Martin. The Reds loaded the bases with one out before JJ Bleday singled in a run against Hoby Milner and two runs scored on Elly De La Cruz’s sacrifice fly to deep right field.
The Reds took a 1-0 lead in the first inning against Colin Rea when TJ Friedl drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on an errant pickoff throw, took third on Bleday’s single to left and scored on De La Cruz’s groundout.
Rea allowed two runs (one earned) on six hits over 5 1/3 innings. He walked three and struck out five.
Chicago answered with two runs in the bottom of the first against Brady Singer, who retired the first two batters before Alex Bregman singled and scored on Happ’s two-run shot to left-center field.
Happ extended his on-base streak to 27 games with the 399-foot shot, his ninth homer of the season and the 33rd of his career against the Reds.
Chicago tacked on two runs in the fourth. Happ singled to begin the inning and scored on Seiya Suzuki’s double. Suzuki moved to third on Busch’s single and scored when Carson Kelly grounded into a double play.
Singer gave up four runs on six hits with one walk and six strikeouts over six innings.
McLain snapped a 0-for-19 hitless streak with a single in the third inning before slugging a leadoff homer in the fifth. The 371-foot homer was McLain’s third of the season.
