Michael Busch Saves Cubs from Wasting Shōta Imanaga’s Start with a WALK OFF BOMB!
HOLY SHIT! Michael Busch on the first pitch of the ninth inning blasted a walk off bomb, giving the Cubs a 3-2 win over the San Diego Padres. This was right after the offense once again let down rookie star Shōta Imanaga, who pitched seven shutout innings before allowing a two-run homer in the eighth.
After scratching a run across in the bottom of the eighth inning on a Christopher Morel sac-fly, Busch snapped out of his homerless streak with a game-winning dinger in the ninth.
You know that feels huge for Busch, who earlier in the season had a streak of hitting a home run in five straight games. Before the walk-off home run, Busch had gone 18 consecutive games without going deep.
A huge win for the Cubs, who almost wasted another great start from Imanaga. You can see the desperation from Craig Counsell, who stuck with the lefty to begin the eighth inning even though Imanaga was approaching the 100-pitch mark. Just goes to show you how little trust there is with the current bullpen set up that Counsell opted to have Imanaga face San Diego’s lineup for a fourth time.
A great time for the first walk-off win of the season for the Cubs as the rain started coming down hard too to begin the bottom of the ninth inning.