​The Cubs’ 9-7 victory over the Orioles on Wednesday night marked their third straight win and their 18th win in 24 games this season, a microcosm of what the 2026 campaign has offered so far. Were there plenty of home runs? Absolutely. Was there standout defense? You bet. Some shakiness in relief work? Definitely, as Chicago nearly relinquished a six-run cushion in the seventh inning, a reminder that bullpen improvements remain a talking point. But since that rough stretch didn’t derail the win, let’s start from the top.
Neither side crossed the plate in the first two frames, though the Cubs might have with a drive by Alex Bregman in the opening inning. That play featured a sensational catch by Taylor Ward. The video isn’t crystal-clear, but Ward appears to have possibly robbed Bregman of a home run. Bregman himself is starting to drive the ball again, which bodes well for the Orioles and the rest of the league.
Chicago finally broke through in the third when Pete Crow-Armstrong belted his 20th homer of the year. That homer not only gave PCA a 1-0 advantage, but also made him the first MLB player this season with a 20/20 line, a milestone that stands out in a season filled with notable achievements. If Crow-Armstrong continues this pace, he’s going to be in the Player of the Week conversation again soon. A note about that third-inning shot from BCB’s JohnW53: the Cubs had gone 157 plate appearances without a homer from the last Brewers-Padres game on July 1 until PCA’s blast in the third on Wednesday night.
The Orioles answered with a run in the bottom of the third, tying the game when Colin Rea was charged with a run on a fielder’s choice double play. Then Rea gave up a two-run homer to Pete Alonso in the fourth, pushing Baltimore ahead 3-1. Alonso’s blast marked his 16th career homer off Cubs pitching—the most by any visiting team not in the NL East, a nod to his long-reaching success against Chicago.
But the Cubs weren’t going to stay in the shadows. They surged back in the fifth with three more long balls to reclaim the lead. Michael Conforto led off the inning with his eighth homer of the season on the very first pitch, narrowing the gap to 3-2. Almost immediately after, Carson Kelly followed with his fifth homer on the next pitch, tying the game. Two pitches, two runs—an efficient offensive burst that swung momentum back in Chicago’s favor. John’s notes add context: Conforto and Kelly’s back-to-back blasts were just the Cubs’ second such sequence this season—the previous pair had come from Alex Bregman and Ian Happ on March 29 against the Nationals. Across the last five seasons, the Cubs have produced 16, 12, 20, 10, and 10 back-to-back home run duos, culminating in 408 back-to-back homers in regular-season play since 1876, plus 11 instances of back-to-back-to-back homers, for a grand total of 419 back-to-back sequences in Cubs history.
After Dansby Swanson grounded out, PCA did it again, launching his 21st homer to retake the lead for Chicago. Rea departed after one out in the sixth, having pitched well aside from that Alonso blast, and Drew Pomeranz finished the inning for the Cubs without further incident. Then Chicago opened the floodgates in the seventh with a five-run eruption that widened the gap and seemed to seal the win—though the relief corps would briefly test that assumption.
In the end, the Cubs held on for the 9-7 victory, capping a game that offered the full spectrum of what this promising 2026 club can deliver: power, timely hitting, defensive gems, and the perennial reminder that bullpen stability remains a work in progress as the season unfolds.