BOX SCORE

It’s Sept. 9.

And in a season that began nearly six months ago, the Cubs (82-63) still have yet to lose more than three games in a row.

They came close again entering Tuesday, having lost the final two games of the Washington Nationals series last weekend and the opener in Atlanta.

But this Cubs team won’t quit, and they proved that in a 6-1 win over the Braves (65-80). The magic number to clinch a Wild Card spot is now 10.

The Cubs are the only team in MLB without a losing streak of four games or more this season.

Here are three things we learned as the Cubs bounced back in a big way:

First blood

Entering Tuesday, the Cubs owned a 58-16 record when scoring first this season. That’s a .784 winning percentage — and the best in all of MLB. The Detroit Tigers (.763) and the Milwaukee Brewers (.750) round out that top three.

Naturally, that meant Pete Crow-Armstrong set the Cubs up nicely on Tuesday when his bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the first inning gave the Cubs the advantage before Cade Horton even took the mound.

Of course, the struggling offense would have wanted more out of a no-out, bases-juiced opportunity. But they say hitting is contagious, and the Cubs carried that over into the following frames. Through three innings, they had already matched their hit total (5) from Monday’s series-opening loss.

Crow-Armstrong tacked on his — and the Cubs’ — second RBI of the night when his bloop single in the third cashed in Ian Happ‘s double.

It was Matt Shaw who finally gave the Cubs the breakthrough they desperately needed in the eighth when his bases-loaded single capped off a four-run inning and put the visitors in the driver’s seat.

Ace of Cades

Another start, another outstanding performance from Cade Horton.

Since the All-Star break, Horton has largely been the talk of an otherwise lackluster second half for the Cubs. It’s for good reason — the 23-year-old rookie entered Tuesday with an MLB-leading 0.77 ERA since July 18 (min. 40 IP). Among those seven starts, four of them were scoreless outings.

Horton was facing a Braves lineup that he no-hit through five innings at Wrigley Field on Sept. 3 — before manager Craig Counsell pulled the right-hander in the interest of limiting his workload ahead of a playoff push. 

So Horton picked up right where he left off on Tuesday, albeit without the no-hitterness of it all. He set the first six Braves down in order before Ronald Acuña Jr. led off the bottom of the third with a double off the wall. 

Acuña Jr. came around to score on Jurickson Profar’s two-out single, but that was the extent of the damage. 

Horton wriggled himself out of another jam unscathed in the fifth, aided by a diving Dansby Swanson catch on a 105.7-mph liner up the middle off Michael Harris II’s bat. Two singles followed, but Horton was able to coax a popout and a flyout to get out of the frame. 

Horton started the seventh inning and set down Braves shortstop Ha-seong Kim before making way for reliever Andrew Kittredge with Acuña Jr. set to come up for a third time. 

The rookie’s day finished after 6.1 innings of work, complete with four hits, one earned run, two strikeouts and a season ERA that was lowered to 2.70.

Pete was everywhere

Sac fly. Single. Walk. Stolen base. Hit by pitch. Stolen base. Run scored.

For a game that saw just three combined runs scored by the eighth inning, Crow-Armstrong’s day was quite eventful. 

It was his sacrifice fly and his RBI bloop single that were keeping the Cubs afloat for the majority of the evening. 

But Crow-Armstrong added a little bit of everything into the mix with each of his at-bats — and it was the pitch he took off his foot in the top of the eighth inning that ignited a four-run rally for the Cubs. 

Nico Hoerner and Willi Castro each took walks before Swanson’s 2-out free pass brought Crow-Armstrong home. The Cubs’ All-Star center fielder had snagged his second bag of the game and 34th of the season just prior to that.

In his final at-bat in the top of the ninth, Crow-Armstrong just missed his 29th home run of the season when he swatted a changeup that sent Profar all the way to the left field wall.

Wednesday’s series finale will see Jameson Taillon‘s (9-6, 4.15 ERA) return to the mound for the first time since he suffered a groin strain during his start on Aug. 24. Cubs hitters will face dominant lefty Chris Sale (5-4, 2.38 ERA) in just his third start since returning from the 60-day IL (fractured ribcage).

Coverage begins at 5 p.m. CT on Marquee Sports Network.