CHICAGO -- After three straight nights of dramatic come-from-behind walk-off victories, the Cubs moved ever closer to matching a 91-year-old mark on Thursday afternoon without needing to raise the heart rates of the 30,411 inside the Friendly Confines.
The North Siders cruised to an 8-3 win over the Reds at Wrigley Field to complete the four-game sweep of their NL Central rival -- this time without any of that nervous energy -- to mark Chicago’s 15th consecutive win at home. It’s the longest winning streak at Wrigley Field since an 18-game stretch in September of 1935, nearly 100 years ago. The franchise record, per team historian Ed Hartig, is a 21-game run back in 1880 at Lakefront Park.
“I’m not the type of person to believe something that I can’t physically see, but I feel like at Wrigley, there’s a power that you can’t see -- but you can feel,” said Shota Imanaga via his interpreter, Edwin Stanberry. The lefty lowered his ERA to 2.28 with his fifth quality start of the season.
“ … I think once you’re on the mound and watch the crowd, that gives you confidence. And I’ve said it before, but there’s not another stadium where the fans give you that same ovation or amount of support, so I’m very thankful for all the fans.”
The win moved the Cubs to 19-3 in their last 22 games and 18-5 at home this season. It’s the first time Chicago has had separate undefeated homestands of at least seven games since 1880, per Hartig. It’s also the first season since 1935 that the Cubs have had two separate winning streaks of at least nine games.
“It’s pretty special,” said Ian Happ, who extended his on-base streak to a career-high 28 games with a walk in the fourth inning. “Four-game sweep in the big leagues is really hard. Any sweep is tough, but four games is pretty impressive. I think our ability to do it in many different ways, that’s been the most impressive part. Contributions from all over the place.”
The flare for the dramatics weren’t needed Thursday while the Cubs ripped off their ninth straight win, but the North Siders (26-12) continued to look like one of the best teams in baseball behind the unlikely contributions from Michael Conforto.
In his first start since April 29 in San Diego, Conforto went 3-for-3 with a walk. The 33-year-old outfielder kicked off the scoring with a solo homer to right field in the second inning before drawing an RBI walk in the fourth -- the first of seven runs Chicago scored that frame.
Conforto is batting .361 with a 1.134 OPS and has driven in eight runs despite just 36 at-bats this season in a limited role off the bench. The regular stars also got it done: Nico Hoerner, Moisés Ballesteros, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Dansby Swanson and Miguel Amaya all drove in runs, but Conforto’s production -- including his walk-off homer on Monday -- was a welcome addition on a scheduled Seiya Suzuki off-day.
“The at-bats he’s provided in limited playing time, it’s just really impressive,” said manager Craig Counsell. “ .. Hadn’t started in a while, since the last game of the road trip, and delivers the player of the game offensively. That's a pretty nice piece to have on your team.”
Conforto added: “It’s great. It’s like a dream. I’m just trying to stay ready for my opportunities and do what I can for the team. … I just want to be part of this specific group. These guys know how to play the game. They know what it takes.”
After eight runs Thursday, the Cubs (208) trail only the Yankees (209) and Braves (213) for the most in baseball.
That was well more than enough for Imanaga, who struck out 10 across six innings of one-run ball. His only blemish was a solo blast in the sixth inning. It wasn’t until the fifth that the Reds reached second base.
After winning 10 straight from April 14-April 24, the Cubs are knocking on the door of their second 10-game winning streak before Mother’s Day. It’s only May, but Thursday’s win moved the Cubs into a tie with the Braves for the best record in baseball.
“Our job is just to stack up wins,” Counsell said. “They count the same now as they do later in the season. … But you got to stack up wins because you do run into headwinds during a very, very long season. So stack them up while things are going well.”
And when the Cubs have been playing at Wrigley, that’s almost been a guarantee.
“It just feels like such a different atmosphere here than anywhere else I played,” Conforto said.