Folks are trained to pay attention to the weather at Wrigley Field.
They can tell you how the Cubs are faring this season when the wind blows out (7-1).
They can tell you how they do when the wind blows in (4-4).
They can even tell you how they do in a crosswind, whether it arrives from the southeast or northwest (3-0).
And after Monday night, they can tell you what happens when a rainbow, mimicking the high arc of a home run by Seiya Suzuki, materializes beyond the right-field wall: The Cubs win, with Michael Conforto’s pinch-hit homer giving them a walk-off, 5-4 triumph over the Reds as rare and precious and beautiful as the splendor in the sky.
Conforto has played 11 seasons in the big leagues, not counting 2022, which he missed after shoulder surgery. He has played in 1,168 games. He has had 3,844 at-bats. He is 33 — 12 years removed from when he was a first-round draft choice of the Mets, much closer to the end of his career than the beginning.
Until Monday night, he never had hit a walk-off home run.
“In T-ball? I might’ve had a couple,” he said.
This was not T-ball. This was the bottom of the ninth in a game the Cubs had just tied. Pete Crow-Armstrong ran as fast as Golden Tempo in the Kentucky Derby going to third when Reds center fielder Dane Myers was unable to hold on to his drive into the ivy, the ball becoming dislodged as Myers hit the wall. Crow-Armstrong scored standing up when Nico Hoerner lined to left for a sacrifice fly.
“Nico doing what Nico does,” skipper Craig Counsell said. “Just getting the run in. There’s a pretty high probability he’s going to do it.”
The next batter due to hit was Matt Shaw, who had entered as a pinch runner for Moises Ballesteros in the eighth. Counsell had waited to see how the inning unfolded before electing to have Conforto bat. He ran the count to 3-2 on Reds closer Emilio Pagan, then launch
