Last Night in Baseball: Cubs Cap 9th Inning Comeback With Walk-Off Homer

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: The Cincinnati Reds were three outs away from taking Game 1 of a four-game series against the National League Central-rival Chicago Cubs, but the friendly bears of the Midway had other ideas. Center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a triple. Two batters later, second baseman Nico Hoerner brought Crow-Armstrong home on a sacrifice fly, tying the game at four-all. Then, the Cubs pinch hit outfielder Michael Conforto for Matt Shaw, and the left-handed hitter sent everybody home screaming, as he uncorked a walk-off solo home run over the left-center field wall on a 3-2 pitch. The dramatic, 5-4 win moved the Cubs, who are in first place in the NL Central, to 23-12, while the loss marked the Reds’ fourth consecutive defeat. Meanwhile, it was Conforto’s first home run of the season. On the year, Conforto, who spent the 2025 season with the World Series-champion Los Angeles Dodgers, has driven in six runs and owns a .323/.436/.548 slash line. As for the rest of the Monday night matchup, the Reds got out to a 3-0 lead, thanks to a solo home run from left fielder JJ Bleday in the top of the third and a two-run homer from third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes in the top of the fourth. Seiya Suzuki leveled up the score for the Cubs with a three-run shot in the bottom half of the inning. Cincinnati then got the lead back on an RBI single from Spencer Steer in the top of the eighth, prior to Chicago stealing the game in the ninth. The Atlanta Braves brought the power to the Pacific Northwest, blasting four home runs against the Seattle Mariners on Monday night; those long balls came from Drake Baldwin, Ozzie Albies, Matt Olson — who hit the 300th home run of his MLB career — and Austin Riley. The problem for Atlanta? They were all solo homers, and Seattle had a five-run bottom of the sixth, which would be good for a 5-4 victory. Regarding the go-ahead and eventual game-winning sixth inning for the Mariners, right fielder Luke Raley hit a three-run home run and shortstop J.P. Crawford hit a two-run shot. Right-hander Logan Gilbert pitched through the sixth inning and was the winning pitcher, an effort followed by three shutout innings from the Mariners’ bullpen: 1 ⅓ innings from Jose A. Ferrer, ⅔ innings from Eduard Bazardo and one inning from Andrés Muñoz. In beating the Braves, whose 25-11 record is the best in MLB, the Mariners snapped a three-game skid (they were swept at home by the Kansas City Royals last weekend). The Milwaukee Brewers are in last place in the NL Central and need a spark. Arguably their best position player making his season debut may suffice. While it came in a 6-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, outfielder Jackson Chourio made his season debut and was a menace, going 4 for 4, reaching base in each of his five plate appearances and logging two doubles. Chourio missed the first five weeks of the season due to a left-hand fracture. Elsewhere, Brewers second baseman Brice Turang went 3 for 5, including a two-run home run in the top of the ninth. Of course, a bases-clearing double from Ivan Herrera, two RBIs from second baseman JJ Wetherholt and another run driven in by shortstop Masyn Winn helped the Cardinals finish on top. Chourio, a former esteemed MLB prospect, is in his third full season at the big-league level, averaging 21 home runs, 78.5 RBIs, 21.5 stolen bases, three wins above replacement and a 114 OPS+ per season from 2024-25, while posting a combined .272/.317/.463 slash line. Meanwhile, Chourio has totaled four home runs and 11 RBIs over 12 career postseason games, owning a combined .341/.362/.682 postseason slash line. The San Francisco Giants gave the ball to right-hander Trevor McDonald, and he proceeded to chew up and spit out the San Diego Padres. In what was his first appearance at the MLB level this season, McDonald surrendered just two baserunners (two hits) and one run — a first-inning home run by Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill — while recording eight strikeouts over seven innings; he threw just 81 pitches. San Francisco got a solo homer from third baseman Casey Schmitt and an RBI single from first baseman Rafael Devers, who also hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth, in the bottom of the first. Meanwhile, second baseman Luis Arraez tallied two doubles in what was a 3-2 win for the Giants. The 25-year-old McDonald made his MLB debut with the Giants in 2024 but has made just five appearances on a big-league mound (one in 2024, three in 2025 and one in 2026). The Tampa Bay Rays aren’t going streaking like Frank the Tank in “Old School,” but winning 10 of your last 11 games, pulling off two sweeps (at home against the Giants and Minnesota Twins) and being on a four-game winning streak in the process isn’t too shabby. Their latest victory came at home over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night, which was a 5-1 win. While using six pitchers, Tampa Bay’s five runs came on a first-inning, three-run home run from right fielder Ryan Vilade and a two-run single from shortstop Taylor Walls in the bottom of the sixth; Toronto’s lone run came on a third-inning RBI single from star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. On the season, the Rays are 22-12, good for being just 1.5 games behind the New York Yankees — whom they swept in a three-game series last month — for first place in the American League East. Over their last 11 games, the Rays have only surrendered a remarkable 14 runs. Granted, Tampa Bay is only averaging 3.8 runs per game over that span. The Yankees spent the past four days pulverizing the Baltimore Orioles. Outscoring Baltimore 39-10, New York swept its AL East rival in a four-game series at Yankee Stadium. Over the last two games of the series (Sunday and Monday), the Yankees averaged 11.5 runs per contest. The bright spot for Baltimore was that three-time AL MVP Aaron Judge’s first-inning, two-run home run would be the only long ball for New York on Monday night. Of course, the bad news for the Orioles was that the Yankees won 12-1, with a six-run eighth inning leading to Baltimore turning to infielder Weston Wilson to get the final out of the inning. Judge and center fielder Trent Grisham each had two hits, with the former driving in four runs and the latter reaching base four times (two doubles and two walks). To cap off the outfield bonanza for New York, left fielder Cody Bellinger had a bases-clearing triple. Ironically, the Orioles and Yankees each finished the game with 10 hits. Cruel sport. The Boston Red Sox can’t replace Garrett Crochet, who’s on the injured list with shoulder inflammation, but fellow left-hander Payton Tolle put forth a Crochet-like performance against the Detroit Tigers on Monday night. In what was a 5-4 win on the road for Boston, Tolle posted eight strikeouts, surrendered just two baserunners (one hit and one walk) and the two runs that scored on his watch were unearned. After Garrett Whitlock gave up a two-run double to Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler in the bottom of the eighth, Aroldis Chapman shut the door in the ninth inning for the Red Sox, which scored all of its runs in the top of the seventh: a three-run home run from Jarren Duran and RBI singles from Wilyer Abreu and Marcelo Mayer. Tolle, whom Boston selected in the second round of the 2024 MLB Draft, made his MLB debut in Aug. 2025, both starting and coming out of the bullpen, but he didn’t open the 2026 season on its big-league roster. He was later activated by the Red Sox last month in the wake of right-hander Sonny Gray going on the injured list with a hamstring injury, with Monday being Tolle’s third start of the season. Over his three starts in 2026, Tolle has recorded a 2.04 ERA, 0.74 WHIP, 23 strikeouts and a 205 ERA+ over 17 ⅔ innings pitched. The Chicago White Sox had their way with the Los Angeles Angels. A pair of RBI singles from second baseman Chase Meidroth and designated hitter Andrew Benintendi gave Chicago a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Later, first baseman Munetaka Murakami and third baseman Miguel Vargas hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth, with a Colson Montgomery RBI single in the sixth wrapping up the scoring for the White Sox, who won 6-0 and tallied 16 hits, including four from Benintendi, three apiece from Murakami and outfielder Jarred Kelenic and two apiece from Vargas and Sam Antonacci. On the hill, right-hander Davis Martin was superb for Chicago, tossing seven shutout innings, giving up just five baserunners (five hits) and striking out 10 batters. Left-hander Sean Newcomb relieved Martin, pitching two shutout innings. While it has a losing record (17-18), Chicago is currently the third AL wild-card team. As for the Angels, they’ve lost 13 of their last 15 games and own the worst record in the sport at 13-23. On Saturday, the Philadelphia Phillies lost to the Miami Marlins, 4-0. Ultimately, the Phillies took three out of four games in the series but, better yet for their sake, they shut out the Marlins in return on Monday, winning 1-0. Veteran right-hander Aaron Nola pitched six scoreless innings for the Phillies, with Tanner Banks, José Alvarado and Brad Keller each pitching a scoreless inning to get Philadelphia through the game. First baseman Bryce Harper provided the needed juice for the Phillies’ offense with a solo home run in the top of the third and three hits on the day altogether; Phillies right fielder Adolis Garcia finished with two hits. Since firing manager Rob Thomson and naming Don Mattingly their interim manager, the Phillies are 6-1. Kyle Tucker, who played the first seven seasons of his MLB career with the Houston Astros (2018-24), played a series at Daikin Park last year with the Cubs — in fact, he went 4 for 5 with a home run in a game against them — but Monday night marked his first time playing in Houston with the Los Angeles Dodgers; the outfielder and two-time Silver Slugger showed zero mercy for his first MLB team. In the top of the first, Tucker gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead on an RBI single and then hit a leadoff home run in the third in what became a four-run inning for Los Angeles, which would go on to win, 8-3. As for how the Dodgers scored their other runs, second baseman Alex Freeland hit a solo home run in the top of the third, with catcher Will Smith logging an RBI double later in the inning; both players finished with three hits. Later, Shohei Ohtani drove in a run on a forceout and Freddie Freeman drove in two runs on a single in the third and drove in another run on a single in the fifth. Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up three runs but managed to post eight strikeouts and get through six innings. Houston traded Tucker to Chicago at the 2024 MLB Winter Meetings for infielder Isaac Paredes, outfielder Cam Smith and right-hander Hayden Wesneski, but Tucker — who posted 5.4 wins above replacement per season with the Astros from 2021-23 — went on to sign a four-year, $240 million deal with Los Angeles last offseason. Through his first 34 games with the Dodgers, Tucker has totaled four home runs, 18 RBIs and a 101 OPS+, while boasting a .242/.325/.386 slash line. The win marked back-to-back victories for the Dodgers, who previously lost four consecutive games.