​BALTIMORE (AP) — Pete Crow-Armstrong drove in two of Chicago’s five homers as the Cubs outslugged the Orioles 9-7 on Wednesday night. In the first big swing of the night, Michael Conforto and Carson Kelly connected on the first two pitches of the fifth inning, each delivering a homer that tied the score right after Pete Alonso’s two-run blast had given Baltimore a 3-1 lead.
Chicago then surged with a five-run seventh inning, capped by a three-run shot from Seiya Suzuki. On the opposite side, Tyler O’Neill homered twice for Baltimore, and Coby Mayo also went deep in the loss.
Colin Rea (7-5) yielded three runs and seven hits over 5 1/3 innings for the Cubs. Dean Kremer (1-2) allowed six hits in five innings, but four of them were solo home runs.
Down 9-3 in the seventh, the Orioles made some noise against Chicago’s bullpen. O’Neill delivered a pinch-hit homer and Taylor Ward added an RBI single, cutting the deficit to 9-5. Mayo then lofted a 420-foot homer into the second deck in left in the eighth, and O’Neill followed with a 433-foot drive to left-center.
Jacob Webb finished off Baltimore with a clean ninth for his fourth save, preserving the Cubs’ win.
Crow-Armstrong now has 21 home runs and became baseball’s first player this season to reach 20 homers and 20 stolen bases. He is only the third Cubs player to record multiple 20-20 campaigns, joining Ryne Sandberg and Sammy Sosa. Sosa and Crow-Armstrong have achieved the feat in consecutive seasons, making Crow-Armstrong the first Cubs player to tally back-to-back 20-20 seasons since Sosa.
For Baltimore, No. 9 hitter Jackson Holliday had four hits, but leadoff batter Gunnar Henderson went 0-for-5 and didn’t manage to lift a ball out of the infield. Henderson also hit into two double plays, and in the eighth his sharp line drive up the middle with a runner on second was tracked down by Dansby Swanson with a diving catch to end the inning. One of Henderson’s double plays in the third inning tied the game at 1 after Crow-Armstrong had opened the scoring in the top of the inning.
Kremer surrendered solo shots to Conforto, Kelly and Crow-Armstrong in a four-batter stretch after Alonso’s 20th homer had given Baltimore a brief edge. The score remained 4-3 in the seventh before Grant Wolfram came on with two on and one out and walked two, executed a wild pitch, and then allowed Suzuki’s 14th homer, widening the Cubs’ lead.
Looking ahead, the Cubs will try to complete a three-game sweep on Thursday night, sending David Peterson (4-7) to the mound against Trevor Rogers (6-7).