Jackson's Two-Run Double Survives Challenge, Lifts Baltimore Past Chicago
Jeremiah Jackson doubled to center to score two runs in the eighth inning, and the call stood after a Chicago Cubs challenge, swinging Baltimore's win probability from 41% to 88% in a single swing. The Orioles held on for a 3-2 win over the Cubs on July 9, 2026.
For six innings, this game belonged to the pitchers and, briefly, to Tyler O'Neill. Baltimore's starter Trevor Rogers worked 6.0 innings, allowing 5 hits and 1 earned run while striking out 4. O'Neill gave him the only run he'd need early, homering to center — 398 feet — in the second inning to put Baltimore up 1-0. Chicago's David Peterson answered with 5.0 innings of his own, surrendering just 2 hits and 1 earned run, though his 4 walks kept things uncomfortable. The Cubs couldn't scratch across a run against Rogers until the sixth, when Seiya Suzuki launched a 432-foot home run to left to tie the game at 1-1. That blast was the loudest moment of the first seven innings, and it looked like Suzuki was about to make it his night entirely.
The eighth inning is where the game was won and lost. Suzuki doubled to left to score Pete Crow-Armstrong, giving Chicago a 2-1 lead and what appeared to be the decisive blow. Suzuki finished 3-for-4 with a home run, 2 RBI, and a run scored — a performance that deserved to be on the winning side. It wasn't. Baltimore answered immediately. With two runners on, Jeremiah Jackson — who entered the game 0-for-0 on the night — doubled to center, scoring both Alonso and Henderson. The Cubs challenged the call on the field. It was upheld. Baltimore led 3-2, and the win probability had lurched from 41% to 88% in one at-bat. That's the kind of swing that ends arguments about who deserved to win.
Yennier Cano closed it out with a clean 1.0 inning of relief — 1 hit, no walks, no runs. The story of the night, frankly, was how close Chicago came to stealing this one. Ian Happ went 2-for-4, Crow-Armstrong scored a run, and Suzuki was as good as any hitter on the field. But Jackson's one swing — his only hit, delivering 2 RBI — rendered all of it secondary. With the All-Star break approaching next week, this looks like a gut-punch loss for a Cubs team that outplayed Baltimore for most of nine innings and still walked away empty.