You knew this Cubs team was in there somewhere, and it came out at the time everyone needed it most.
The Cubs put together a varied offense, including nine hits, a home run and five walks, went 5-for-12 with RISP, and defeated the Brewers 10-3, moving back to within a game of first place in the NL Central. The game drew the largest home crowd in Milwaukee this year, 42,807.
They wasted no time getting going. Michael Busch hit Freddy Peralta’s first pitch of the game out of the yard [VIDEO].
About that
home run, from BCB’s JohnW53:
Busch’s home run was his third in his 10 games as the Cubs’ first batter. He had no such homers before this year.
His three already tie Busch for 15th most by a Cub since 1912, first season for which baseball-reference.com has searchable play-level data.
Alfonso Soriano leads by far, with 20. Rick Monday hit 12; Dexter Fowler, 11; Ian Happ, 8; and Brian McRae, 7.
Kyle Schwarber is among four who hit five. Christopher Morel and Mike Tauchman are among five who hit four.Busch is the 14th with three. The others include Lou Brock, Shawon Dunston, Nico Hoerner, Corey Patterson, Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist.
That homer was a rocket at almost 110 miles per hour [VIDEO].
The Brewers got the run back in the bottom of the first on a home run by William Contreras. After Contreras had 23 homers last year, that was just his seventh of 2025.
The Cubs put some distance between themselves and the Brewers in the top of the third. With one out, Kyle Tucker singled and Seiya Suzuki walked.
Pete Crow-Armstrong’s double scored Tucker to give the Cubs the lead [VIDEO].
After Carson Kelly hit a ground ball that resulted in Suzuki being out at the plate, Nico Hoerner walked to load the bases.
That brought up Moises Ballesteros [VIDEO].
That was a beautifully-placed hit to the opposite field, splitting the outfielders and scoring all three baserunners.
Five runs off Freddy Peralta. That’s the most runs given up by Peralta in any of his 23 starts this year. Further, it’s the most runs the Cubs have ever scored off Peralta in any of the 21 games (16 starts) he’s made against them.
I felt pretty good about this game after that, and likely so did you. The Brewers did attempt a comeback. In the fourth, Contreras homered again off Imanaga, and Milwaukee scored again in the fifth on a sac fly by Sal Frelick to make it 5-3.
The Cubs came right back with another crooked number in the sixth. Justin Turner batted for Ballesteros and doubled. Dansby Swanson’s double scored Turner [VIDEO].
Matt Shaw followed with an infield single, with Swanson holding second. A ground out by Busch advanced both runners, and Tucker followed with a double that scored a pair [VIDEO].
The Cubs re-loaded the bases on a walk by Suzuki and Pete Crow-Armstrong being hit by a pitch, but they could not score further.
Five innings was it for Imanaga, and despite allowing three runs, he had a nice outing with lots of swing-and-miss. He struck out eight [VIDEO].
Here’s more on Imanaga’s outing [VIDEO].
And more from BCB’s JohnW53:
Imanaga’s eight strikeouts tied his high on the road in his two seasons as a Cub. This was his 22nd road start. His two previous games with eight were last season, on May 13 at Atlanta and Aug. 30 at Washington. In 22 starts at home, he has struck out eight twice, nine once, 10 twice and 11 once, on Sept. 16 of last year vs. the Athletics.
Also, the Cubs are now 33-11 in Imanaga’s 44 career starts for them (10-5 this year).
Brad Keller was asked to throw two relief innings in this one, and he did so with no trouble, throwing 26 pitches (17 strikes) and allowing just one hit. Caleb Thielbar threw a 1-2-3 eighth on just eight pitches. Both should be available Friday, I’d think.
The Cubs added a pair of runs in the ninth. PCA led off with a double, his 30th, and went to third on a fly to right by Kelly. Hoerner’s sac fly made it 9-3 [VIDEO].
Ian Happ, a surprise pinch-hitter in the seventh for Turner, batted next — and homered! [VIDEO]
That was Happ’s 15th of the year, and as noted, it was somewhat of a surprise to see him in this game at all. Given that he had two at-bats and did very well in one of them, I would not be surprised to see him start Friday against Baltimore. He might wind up at DH for a couple games with Suzuki in left field. Suzuki played well in the field. Here’s one nice grab he made, to end the seventh [VIDEO].
Daniel Palencia, who had not pitched since Sunday, entered to throw the ninth. He allowed a two-out single but otherwise finished without incident. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].
Last note from John on this win:
This was the Cubs’ 17th game of the season with at least 10 runs. They went into the day tied with the Red Sox for most by any team. The Yankees have 13 and the Tigers, 12.
They have had more double-digit games through their first 107 games only once: 25, in 1929. They also had 17 in 1930, 1935, 1937 and 2023.
So now we enter the last 24 hours or so before MLB’s trade deadline, which will happen at 5 p.m. CT tomorrow, July 31. Hopefully Jed Hoyer is ready to pull the trigger on deals that will help the Cubs rotation, bullpen and bench. I will open a thread tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. CT for deadline day discussion, and of course if the Cubs make any deals there will be separate front-page articles.
The Cubs wound up with a 14-10 July — which isn’t terrible! But the Brewers went 17-7 and there’s the difference between a two-game lead and the Cubs’ current one-game deficit to the Brewers. Also, this win tied the season series between the Cubs and Brewers at four wins each, so the five-game set next month at Wrigley is important, as the winner of that series will win the season series and thus have the tiebreaker between the two clubs.
And there’s still fully a third of this season left — in fact, exactly one-third, 54 games — and so there’s plenty of time to begin making up that small deficit and regaining first place.
That’ll begin with a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles at Wrigley Field Friday afternoon. Cade Horton will start Friday for the Cubs and as of this writing, the Orioles have not named a starter for that game. Game time Friday is 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
More from bleedcubbieblue.com:
- In remembrance of Ryne Sandberg, a great baseball player and better human being
- Brewers 8, Cubs 4: The game was secondary
- Cubs roster move: Gavin Hollowell recalled, Chris Flexen designated for assignment
- Cubs vs. Brewers Tuesday 7/29 game threads
- Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers preview, Tuesday 7/29, 6:40 CT
- Outside The Confines: The calm before the storm?
- Minor League Wrap: Miguel Amaya catches 5 innings in rehab appearance with Iowa
