Pete Crow-Armstrong homered twice and Shota Imanaga threw six quality innings to help lead the Chicago Cubs to an 8-4 victory over the visiting Atlanta Braves on Wednesday.
Crow-Armstrong hit solo homers in the third and seventh to bring his season total to 44 — one behind Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber’s major league-leading 45. Alex Bregman went 3-for-4 with a homer and four RBIs for the Cubs (85-68), who kept pace a half-game ahead of the Phillies for the National League’s top wild card spot.
Imanaga (11-10) won his third consecutive start for the first time this season. The left-hander allowed just one run on four hits while striking out eight and walking none.
J.R. Ritchie (1-3) allowed six runs on seven hits across 4 2/3 innings for Atlanta (89-64). The rookie struck out five and walked two in his first major league appearance since Aug. 2. Mauricio Dubon had two hits and an RBI for the Braves, who have dropped three of their last four.
Michael Busch walked and scored in the first on Bregman’s double.
Crow-Armstrong doubled the Cubs’ lead with his 43rd homer of the season — a 376-foot solo shot in the third.
Chicago tacked on in the fourth with Bregman’s 26th home run, extending the lead to 3-0.
After Austin Riley reached on an infield single in the second, Imanaga retired 11 straight Atlanta batters.
In the fifth, Carson Kelly singled and Crow-Armstrong tripled to make it 4-0. After Ritchie hit Seiya Suzuki with a pitch and struck out Busch, Bregman lined a ball past Riley at third base. Both Crow-Armstrong and Suzuki scored as Dubon misplayed the ball in right, resulting in a triple for Bregman.
Ronald Acuna Jr. began the sixth with a double before advancing to third on Drake Baldwin’s groundout. Matt Olson then plated the first Atlanta run with a grounder to first.
Aaron Civale relieved Imanaga in the seventh. He allowed Dubon’s triple and Riley’s RBI groundout.
Owen Murphy served up Crow-Armstrong’s second blast to begin the bottom of the seventh. In the eighth, Tyrone Taylor doubled and scored on Michael Conforto’s single to make it 8-2.
Ryan Rolison surrendered Ozzie Albies’ walk and Michael Harris II’s single in the ninth before Ryan Zeferjahn entered in relief. Dubon then drove in the Braves’ third run with a double to right. Sean Murphy followed two batters later with an RBI groundout. Zeferjahn retired Mike Yastrzemski to end the game.
