Busch smashes walk-off homer to push Cubs past Padres
Kamil Krzaczynski - USA Today Sports

Busch smashes walk-off homer to push Cubs past Padres
by - Senior Writer - Wed May 08 08:02:45 GMT-04:00 2024

CHICAGO - Baseball is a game full of emotions, and for the Chicago Cubs (22-15), you had every bit of emotions on Tuesday night. With Shota Imanaga dominating the San Diego Padres (19-20) through seven scoreless frames, manager Craig Counsell chose to bring him out for the eight in what some called a questionable decision.

However, when you look at how things have gone with the bullpen this season, putting him back out there to try and get three more outs was the right decision, as he dominated most of the night. This was one of those instances where the decision didn't pay off, as Jurickson Profar connected for a go-ahead two-run shot that left the Wrigley Field faithful stunned and forced the Cubs to play catchup.

After tying things up with a Christopher Morel sacrifice fly and seeing Ian Happ save the game with an incredible running catch in the ninth, it took Michael Busch one pitch to deliver the game-winner as he took Enyel De Los Santos deep for his seventh homer of the season and helped deliver the Cubs a 3-2 walk-off win. This was a much-needed hit for Busch, and hopefully, this is a sign of things to come.

As mentioned, Imanaga continued to impress on the mound. He opened the game with seven shutout innings and lowered his ERA to 0.68 in the process. Imanaga would eventually allow that two-run homer, but with two runs on seven hits through seven innings with eight punchouts, his ERA sits at 1.08 as he continues to do his thing each time out.

“He's (Imanaga) been a big deal here,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said after the win. “He's been so, so important to us and a big reason why we're off to this start.”

Before that homer, Imanaga held a narrow 1-0 lead as Randy Vazquez showed up in a big way. Despite his struggles all season with AAA, you wouldn't have guessed it here, as he allowed just one run on five hits in 4 1/3 innings with six strikeouts. That run came in the fourth inning when Cody Bellinger worked another long count before getting into one and putting it over the fence to put the Cubs in front 1-0.

This was Bellinger's first game back since he fractured a rib, and you would've thought he had been playing every day as he came away with three hits and that homer. While this hit was big, Bellinger played a role in an even bigger hit later, which we will get to in a bit. With the lead, Imanaga started to carve up the Padre hitters, retiring 11 in a row at one point until Jose Azocar ended that with a single.

With Miguel Amaya picking up a one-out single in the bottom of the fifth ahead of the Nico Hoerner single, the Cubs were looking to add on, only to come away empty-handed. That has been a theme far too often as of late, and at some point, you knew that failing to cash in on these opportunities would loom large.

It was starting to look like that in the sixth, with Fernando Tatis Jr and Jack Cronenworth picking up back-to-back singles before a dropped pop fly gave the Padres an extra life. Imanaga took that to heart, striking out both Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts to end the inning and kept the Cubs in front 1-0.

With Bellinger and Happ each picking up a single in the bottom of the sixth, the offense failed to deliver again as they let the Padres hang around. Eventually, that hanging around cost the Cubs as Luis Arraez opened the top of the eighth with a base hit before coming home to score on the Pofar homer that headed the Cubs down 2-1. That was only the second homer allowed by Imanaga all season. He also threw a career-high 102 pitches before turning things over to Yency Almonte and Hector Neris late.

Needing offense in a hurry, the Cubs were up against one of the Padres' prized offseason acquisitions, Yuki Matsui. Coming off a night where he allowed a pair of homers, he was much better in this one, although he did allow a Bellinger single while walking Tauchman to put runners on the corners and less than two outs.

After getting Matsui for a two-run blast on Monday, Morel got to him again, just not in as severe of a way as his sacrifice fly brought home a run and tied things up 2-2.

With Happ having to bail Neris out in the ninth after he put forth another shaky performance, it would come down to the Cubs offense to seal the deal in regulation.

Leave it to Busch to deliver that, as all he needed was one pitch to walk things off and connected off a De Los Santos offering to punish it deep into the Chicago night as the Cubs walked off the Padres 3-2.

“It's always fun playing behind Shota,” said Busch during his postgame interviews. “Obviously, he's got this stuff, the charisma. Just everything about him. He's awesome in the clubhouse. He's just a competitor, and he's going out and doing his thing.”

Bellinger and Busch had the hot hands offensively as they combined for five hits and two RBIs, with Busch delivering the big blow.

The Cubs will look to take the series tomorrow afternoon when Hayden Wesneski faces off with Dylan Cease.

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