CHICAGO -- Rafael Ortega knew it was gone, but the Cubs outfielder watched the baseball's flight to be sure. He took nine steps and then -- once the ball cleared the bricks and ivy in right field -- he threw his right arm skyward, sending his bat into the air.

Given all the losing Chicago has experienced this month, this was a moment for Ortega to savor. His two-run blast not only delivered a 6-4 win in walk-off fashion, but put an end to the Cubs' franchise-record 13-game losing streak at Wrigley Field.

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"Once that ball hit the bat, and it was going," Ortega said through team translator Will Nadal, "I just gave thanks to God. And I just felt like I knew it. It just felt great."

Standing in the on-deck circle, Frank Schwindel put both arms in the air and held them there until Ortega reached first base. Teammates poured from the third-base dugout. Ortega clapped hard as he approached third, and then spiked his helmet before jumping into the mob at home plate.

The fans at the once-again Friendly Confines sang along as "Go, Cubs! Go!" blared through the speakers.

"I think Mike Hermosillo said, 'I didn't know we had a theme song,'" Cubs manager David Ross said with a smile. "It was good, man. It was good."

In the grand scheme of things, a win versus a loss does not mean much for the direction of this season for a Cubs team stuck in fourth place and focused on the future. Development and evaluation are the buzzwords for the final five weeks.

That said, a pile of losses like this -- 39 defeats in 52 games since the Cubs' no-hit win over the Dodgers on June 24 -- takes a toll on a team and its fan base. There have been multiple losing streaks of 11-plus games in that stretch, plus the long losing skid in front of the home crowd.

"It's been really tough," Ortega said. "Just coming here every day, especially not winning many games, not winning games at home. It's something that weighs on you, just coming in every day knowing that you might not be able to win."

The last time the Cubs won at home was on July 26, when things looked a lot different for the North Siders. In that game against the Reds, five players appeared who were traded across July 29-30 before the Deadline.

Anthony Rizzo homered. Kris Bryant reached base three times. Jake Marisnick had two hits. Craig Kimbrel struck out three. Javier B¨¢ez delivered a walk-off against Amir Garrett in a wild scene that included some game-ending taunting.

In the 13 home games since that raucous victory, the stripped-down Cubs were outscored, 99-33, hit .199 as a team with a .589 OPS and turned in a 7.34 ERA.

"We have a lot of young guys right now around the team," Ortega said. "It really felt good today to get that win, especially with all the guys here on the team."

Players trying to make an impression with 2022 in mind helped spark the late rally, too.

Ian Happ -- out to prove he can rediscover his '20 form and continue to be a trusted part of the future -- had three hits in the win and drew a walk to load the bases in the eighth. That free pass preceded an RBI single by Patrick Wisdom, who is trying to show he can be a late-blooming run producer.

Hermosillo, who was recently promoted from Triple-A Iowa, delivered his first hit at Wrigley Field in the eighth. He pulled a pitch from Carlos Estevez to left, where the baseball one-hopped the wall, knocked in a run and knotted the score, 4-4.

"These guys have fought to the end a lot," Ross said. "Sometimes the pitching gets the best of us, but the effort and the intent, the focus, is there night in and night out."

In the ninth, veteran Jason Heyward came off the bench and led off with a single against Rockies right-hander Daniel Bard. After Matt Duffy struck out, Ortega stepped into the box.

"I just had a feeling," Ortega said. "I knew if I could get up there, stay patient, wait for the right pitch, I thought that I could do it, that I could hit a homer in that situation."

Ortega -- stuck in an 0-for-15 slump ahead of that moment -- has been given a chance to show he can be a part of the '22 outfield plans, too. To date, he has impressed against righty pitching and out of the leadoff spot, hitting .306 with an .849 OPS, overall.

As Ross sent Heyward with the pitch, Bard spun a slider that stayed up in the zone and drifted out over the plate. Ortega hammered it out to right.

"It was pretty obvious from where we're at," Ross said, "that it was going to be a homer. You're just waiting for it to go out. It was nice. I don't think I've smiled in a while after a game."