BALTIMORE (AP) — Pete Crow-Armstrong hit two of Chicago’s five home runs and the Cubs outslugged the Baltimore Orioles 9-7 on Wednesday night.
Michael Conforto and Carson Kelly also went deep on the first two pitches of the fifth inning for Chicago, tying the game immediately after Pete Alonso’s two-run shot had given Baltimore a 3-1 lead.
Chicago then scored five runs in the seventh, including a three-run shot by Seiya Suzuki.
Tyler O’Neill homered twice for Baltimore and Coby Mayo also went deep.
Colin Rea (7-5) allowed three runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings for the Cubs. Dean Kremer (1-2) gave up just six hits in five innings, but four of them were solo homers.
Down 9-3 in the seventh, the Orioles made it interesting against Chicago’s bullpen. O’Neill’s pinch-hit homer and Taylor Ward’s RBI single made it 9-5 in the seventh. Then Mayo added a 420-foot homer into the second deck in left field in the eighth, and O’Neill followed with a 433-foot drive to left-center.
Jacob Webb halted the comeback, pitching a perfect ninth for his fourth save.
Crow-Armstrong now has 21 home runs and he became baseball’s first 20-homer, 20-stolen base man of the season. He’s just the third Cubs player with multiple 20-20 campaigns, along with Ryne Sandberg and Sammy Sosa. Only Sosa and Crow-Armstrong have done it in back-to-back seasons.
No. 9 hitter Jackson Holliday had four hits for the Orioles, but leadoff man Gunnar Henderson went 0 for 5 without hitting the ball out of the infield. Henderson hit into two double plays, and when he finally hit a sharp line drive up the middle with a runner on second in the eighth, shortstop Dansby Swanson made a diving catch to end the inning.
One of the double plays Henderson hit into brought a run home, tying the game at 1 in the third after Crow-Armstrong had opened the scoring in the top of the inning.
After Alonso’s 20th homer, Kremer allowed solo shots by Conforto, Kelly and Crow-Armstrong in a four-batter span.
It was still 4-3 in the seventh when Grant Wolfram came in to pitch with two on and one out. He allowed a walk, a sacrifice fly and another walk before throwing a run-scoring wild pitch and then allowing Suzuki’s 14th homer.
Up next
The Cubs go for a three-game sweep Thursday night, sending David Peterson (4-7) to the mound against Trevor Rogers (6-7).
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