CHICAGO - By the time Nico Hoerner reached the mound as his Chicago Cubs teammates celebrated around him, Pete Crow-Armstrong crowned him with a purple Dubble Bubble bucket that had been emptied over his head moments earlier.
The Cubs can only hope the euphoric sequence finally sends them on the type of winning streak that can sway the front office to add to the roster before the July 30 MLB trade deadline.
Their tenuous positioning in the National League wild-card race was nearly dealt another blow Sunday at Wrigley Field. Taking a lone hit into the ninth inning of a one-run game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Hoerner's lead-off double set up the Cubs' tying run, which scored on Seiya Suzuki's single up the middle.
Hoerner again came through in a big moment, drawing a bases-loaded, one-out walk in the 10th to give the Cubs a 2-1 win to avoid getting swept by Arizona.
"Definitely you want to be the person to drive in the run and make a difference, but a walk is just as valuable in that situation," Hoerner said. "I was ready to hit on that 3-1 pitch, but fortunately shut down and it was a ball."
The Cubs (48-53) can't afford series losses like they had versus the Diamondbacks, who they are chasing in the wild card standings. The season tiebreaker between the two teams will now be determined by intradivision record after they split their season matchup. The Cubs are behind five teams additional teams for the third wild-cart spot currently held by St. Louis: the New York Mets, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants hold the tiebreaker advantage against the Cubs, while the tiebreakers with the Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates have yet to be determined.
"It's a time of year when definitely outside factors can creep in," Hoerner said. "But I think it's also an opportunity. I think it just depends on how you want to frame it mentally. And, OK, it's all in our control and everything in front of us so that's what we've been preaching in here and what I believe in.
"Even though the trade deadline is soon I think that the focus really is on the day-to-day. This game is a lot of us in a great way and I think guys are focused on what we can do tomorrow first, but yeah, the belief is high."
The Cubs got just enough offensively to salvage the series. It's impossible, however, to ignore how their inconsistent offensive production remains extremely problematic. Suzuki's RBI single in the ninth ended a stretch of 18 consecutive scoreless innings, which ties their longest such streak this season.
"Guys that you count on to have some level of production that aren't, you'd hope we can get that straightened out and just work on that every single day," manager Craig Counsell said before the win. "That's the great thing about our game is that there is a game every day so you have to turn the page and you have to get ready to compete and you're going to get challenged the next day so that makes you learn how to turn the page and I think we do that pretty well."
The walk-off marked just the second victory in 47 games when the Cubs have trailed entering the ninth. The other win also came against the Diamondbacks on April 15.
The Cubs nearly wasted another dazzling outing by left-hander Shota Imanaga.
Imanaga struck out the side in first inning, part of a career-high 10 strikeouts. Eugenio Suárez connected for a solo home run in the seventh for the only run Imanaga allowed.
Imanaga leads the Cubs with 12 quality starts while his 108 strikeouts rank second among MLB rookies behind the Yankees' Luis Gil (118).
He took a no-hitter into the sixth and was a pitch away from ending the inning when Randal Grichuk got around on an 0-2 splitter down and away to take it up the middle for a single. Cubs fans cheered in recognition of Imanaga's no-hit bid, however, he didn't find out he had not allowed a hit until chatting with the pitching coaches and his interpreter after his start was over.
"When I was on the mound I was like, ‘Why are they cheering?'" Imanaga said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry. "When I woke up this morning physically I felt great, everything felt awesome. So I feel today's outing pretty much reflected how I felt."
