Game Recap: Cubs destroy Cardinals in Tucker's return |
Dustin Riese
· · 14 hours ago
CHICAGO - When the Chicago Cubs' (90-70) 2024 season came to a close, Craig Counsell took it upon himself to discuss how this organization could change for the better. He made a point to highlight that the goal shouldn't be just to make the postseason, but also to win 90 or more games each season.
Here we are with less than a week to go, and the Cubs have achieved that 90-win goal as they picked up their 90th victory of the season Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field. It was a victory that came with plenty of excitement as the hated St. Louis Cardinals (78-82) opened up a weekend set with the Cubs. Backed by another strong effort from Colin Rea and a relentless offense that saw the Cubs connect for four homers, including a Seiya Suzuki Grand Slam, it was the Cubs taking care of business 12-1. While Rea may not be seen as one of the Cubs' pitchers for the Wild Card round, Chicago needs to consider it, as Shota Imanaga has really struggled over the past few weeks. Rea, on the other hand, has not, as he followed up his 11-strikeout performance against the Reds last weekend with another strong seven-strikeout outing on Saturday, as he picked up his 11th win of the season, lowering his ERA to 3.95. Rea is one of the many heroes of this season's team as the Cubs wouldn't be in the postseason without him. Opposing Rea was right-hander Miles Mikolas, who was looking for a better fate this time around at Wrigley. In his last start on the North Side, Mikolas was touched up for six homers, resulting in more than a half mile in total distance. The long ball continued to do him in on Friday as he allowed four runs on four hits across five innings. Three of those four hits came via the long ball as Nico Hoerner got the party started with a solo shot in the first to put the Cubs on top for good, 1-0. With the Cardinals picking up just one hit through the first four innings, you started to get that feeling that this was one of those starts for Rea, as it was only a matter of time until the offense started to get rolling. You started to see signs of that in the fourth as Kyle Tucker returned to the lineup for the first time since early September and picked up a one-out single in the fourth to give the Cubs a baserunner. Two batters later, and it was Pete Crow-Armstrong delivering the Cubs' second homer of the afternoon as Chicago pushed their lead to 3-0. For PCA, that was his 30th bomb of the season as he joins elite company as one of just four players in franchise history to post a 30-homer and 30-steal campaign. Michael Busch added his team-leading 32nd homer in the fifth to push the lead to 4-0, as that was the end of the line for Mikolas. After dominating the Cardinals through five innings, Rea came back out to pitch the sixth, and after retiring the first two hitters he faced, it was the Lars Nootbaar walk that kept the inning alive. An Ivan Herrera single followed that up as that was the end of the road for Rea with Caleb Thielbar being called on to finish off the sixth. Thielbar didn't help his cause, walking the first batter he faced to load the bases only to escape without damage. Thielbar continued to have his issues in the seventh, allowing a lead-off double to Nolan Gorman ahead of the Thomas Saggase single as the Cardinals had two runners on with no outs. The second hit of the inning came off Andrew Kittredge, who also allowed a Jordan Walker single to make this a 4-1 game before getting out of the seventh with minimal damage. While the Cubs got off to a great start offensively, it was in the seventh inning when they put things away as the offense erupted for seven runs to make this an 11-1 game. Dansby Swanson started the big inning with a leadoff walk, only to race around the bases on a Matt Shaw triple to push the lead back to four at 5-1. Busch extended the lead to 6-1 with a double, while a pair of singles from Hoerner and Ian Happ made this a 7-1 game as Happ added the Cubs' third RBI of the inning. The big blow in that inning, and arguably of the game, came from Suzuki, who may be heating up at the right time. After hitting a pair of homers on Thursday for his first homers since August 8th, Suzuki capped off the Cubs' seven-run seventh inning with a massive Grand Slam to make this an 11-1 game. With that homer, Suzuki topped the 100 RBI mark (101) for the first time in his career while also giving the Cubs three players with 30 or more homers for just the second time in franchise history. Kevin Alcantara closed out the scoring for the Cubs with his first RBI of the season with an eighth-inning single, setting things up for Brad Keller to close things out in the ninth to give the Cubs a 12-1 win. The win cuts the Cubs' magic number to host the Wild Card round down to one, as one more win or a Padres loss will give them home field. Three players came away with multi-hit games as Busch, Hoerner, and Happ accomplished that. Chicago will look to clinch home field tomorrow when the send Jameson Taillon to the mound against Michael McGreavy.
