On one of the most beautiful Chicago afternoons of the entire summer — upper 70s, low humidity, light wind blowing in — the Cubs offense got going, led by another multi-hit game from Nico Hoerner and a home run by Alex Bregman.
Those two were joined by multiple teammates in a 12-hit, six-walk offense in crushing the visiting Twins 10-1, winning the series.
After Imanaga had an easy first inning, the Cubs bats got right to work. Seiya Suzuki lined a double to left with one out in the bottom of the first and
one out later, Bregman gave the Cubs a 2-0 lead [VIDEO].
That was Bregman’s 10th of the year and third in his last five games. At last, his bat appears to have come alive. About those first-inning runs, from BCB’s JohnW53:
The Cubs have scored in the first inning of four consecutive games, beginning last Sunday at Cincinnati: two, one, five and two runs, for a total of 10. They had scored 35 runs in the first innings of their previous 95 games.
The Cubs put another one on the board in the second. Pedro Ramirez, DH’ing for the second straight day, bounced a double into the seats in left. Carson Kelly singled him in [VIDEO].
The Cubs then blew the game open in the third. With one out, Michael Busch singled and Bregman and Ian Happ drew walks to load the bases.
Nico Hoerner hit what should have been an RBI single but… oops! [VIDEO].
Twins center fielder Luke Keaschall just waved at the ball as it went by and it wound up a bases-clearing triple.
Hoerner scored on this single by Ramirez to make it 7-0 [VIDEO].
Ramirez has been really impressive as the DH the last two days — 4-for-7 with two doubles and a walk. I’d really like to see him get more playing time — somewhere.
About all those runs in the first three innings, from John:
The Cubs have scored 12 runs — five, then seven — in the first three innings yesterday and today. They had averaged 1.49 in the first three of their previous 97 games.
The Cubs ran Twins starter Zebby Matthews out of the game in the top of the fourth. Pete Crow-Armstrong, who had a rough 0-for-5 Saturday, led off with a single. Seiya Suzuki walked and Busch’s single scored PCA [VIDEO].
That brought up Bregman [VIDEO].
It was ruled a fielder’s choice and error on Twins third baseman Brooks Lee. The FC allowed Bregman to reach and the error scored Suzuki from second to make it 9-0. Personally, I think I’d have ruled that a hit.
Anyway, that got Matthews out of the game. Happ hit into a double play, but Nico singled in Busch to make it 10-0 [VIDEO].
That was basically the end of the Cubs offense for the day, but it was certainly more than enough. They did load the bases again in the eighth, but could not score.
In the meantime, Imanaga had one of his better outings of the year, holding the Twins to six hits over seven innings, with one walk and four strikeouts [VIDEO].
Here’s more on Imanaga’s outing [VIDEO].
And more from John:
Shōta Imanaga’s start was the Cubs’ first of 7.0 innings in 40 games, since Ben Brown did it on May 30.
It was their eighth of the season, half of them by Imanaga. Brown, Edward Cabrera, Colin Rea and Jameson Taillon each did it once.
All pitched exactly 7.0. Imanaga also had the only other scoreless outing of the eight, at home against the Diamondbacks on May 2.
Imanaga also had some help from his defense — check out this nice running grab by PCA to end the sixth [VIDEO].
I was going to close the complaint department today, but I’m opening it for Phil Maton, making his first appearance since being activated from the IL July 11.
He was not good. He allowed a pair of singles and a walk to load the bases with one out, and a sac fly gave the Twins their only run of the day. It was to the point that Craig Counsell got Ryan Rolison up in the pen, which I am sure he did not want to do. And it might have been worse if not for this great diving stab by Bregman to end the inning [VIDEO].
Drew Pomeranz was given the ninth, and who knows? That might be his swan song as a Cub, as it’s possible he might be let go when just-acquired Aaron Civale is activated. Pomeranz finished things up with just a one-out walk. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].
Last note on all the runs from John:
This was the 11th game of the season in which the Cubs scored at least 10 runs. They began the day tied with the Angels, Astros and Yankees for fourth most. The Dodgers and Nationals both had 14; the Pirates, 12. The Nationals had lost once; the Angels and Astros, twice. The Cubs and others were undefeated. The combined average of the 29 other teams was seven double-digit games.
The Cubs had 22 such games last year, after having had 12 in 2024 and 24 in 2023.
So the Cubs took care of business by taking two of three. Meanwhile, the Mets beat the Phillies so the Cubs lead them by 1.5 games for the top wild card spot. And the Brewers got a three-run walkoff homer from William Contreras to sweep the Marlins, so the Cubs still are six games out of first place in the NL Central.
The Detroit Tigers come to Wrigley Field to open a three-game series Monday evening. Jameson Taillon will be activated from the injured list to start this game, and Jack Flaherty goes for Detroit. Game time is 7:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
