The Cubs bullpen was really, really good for the first few months of 2025. In recent weeks, though, they’ve had some notable meltdowns.
Wednesday night, we saw that first-half pen again as they threw 4.2 innings of one-hit relief and the Cubs held on for a 3-2 win over the Braves.
Jameson Taillon and Chris Sale matched zeroes for the first two innings, but the Cubs did manage a few baserunners off Sale, notably Nico Hoerner, who singled his first two times at the plate.
The Braves scored a run in the
bottom of the third off Taillon on a pair of doubles, by Marcell Ozuna and Nacho Alvarez Jr.
But the Cubs were able to break through off Sale and take the lead in the fourth. Carson Kelly led off the inning with his 17th home run [VIDEO].
The Cubs weren’t done in that inning. One out later, Dansby Swanson singled and stole second. He scored on this double by Justin Turner [VIDEO].
The Cubs’ lead increased to 3-1 in the fifth. Hoerner singled, his third hit of the game. About that three-hit game, from BCB’s JohnW53:
Nico Hoerner now has 52 games with at least three hits since joining the Cubs in 2019. Ian Happ is a distant second, with 46, followed by Seiya Suzuki, with 33; Dansby Swanson, 21; Willson Contreras, 21; and Pete Crow-Armstrong, 19. PCA leads this year, with 12 to Kyle Tucker’s 11 and Hoerner’s 10. Happ and Suzuki both have eight.
Sale tried to pick Hoerner off and threw the ball away, with Nico taking second. Hoerner then stole third, the Cubs’ third steal of the game. From John:
With their three steals tonight, the Cubs have stolen at least one base in seven consecutive games, tying their season high, set April 1-8. They stole 19 bases in April; 10 in their current streak. They had five-game streaks May 31-June 5 and Aug. 9-14.
Last season, the Cubs stole a base in 14 straight games, June 5-19. That tied with 1906 and 1986 for their third-longest such streak of the Modern Era. They had a 15-game streak in 1901 and a 16-game streak in 1904.
Nico scored to make it 3-1 on this sac fly by Seiya Suzuki [VIDEO].
Suzuki hasn’t been hitting much, but he did have a single and two walks in this game in addition to the sac fly. That gave him an 18-game on-base streak in which he’s drawn 14 walks and posted a .354 OBP.
Meanwhile, the Cubs, who have had trouble vs. left-handed starters all year, did pretty well against Sale, one of the better lefties in the game. They had seven hits, including Kelly’s homer, and scored three runs even while Sale struck out nine.
Taillon got in trouble in the bottom of the fifth. A double and single put runners on first and third with one out. Craig Counsell called on Taylor Rogers to replace Taillon, who had thrown 79 pitches, probably about his limit in his first outing off the IL. Rogers allowed a sac fly to make it 3-2, but finished off the fifth and got one out in the sixth before being replaced by Porter Hodge. Hodge retired the only two hitters he faced, and this month has thrown 3.2 scoreless innings (in four games) and struck out six of the 11 hitters he faced. Maybe, just maybe, Hodge is ready for more high-leverage situations.
The Cubs didn’t score again but neither did the Braves. Caleb Thielbar threw a 1-2-3 seventh. Brad Keller allowed a one-out single in the eighth but posted his 21st consecutive scoreless appearance.
Andrew Kittredge got the save opportunity and dispatched the Braves 1-2-3 on just 11 pitches. He had some defensive help from Carlos Santana for the second out [VIDEO].
Here are Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
The win also improved the Cubs’ record in one-run games to 24-16.
On Wednesday, all the other contenders results favored the Cubs. The Rangers defeated the Brewers, completing a three-game sweep. Since the Brewers beat the Cubs 7-0 Aug. 18 and took a nine-game lead in the NL Central, the Cubs are 13-9 and the Brewers 10-13. The Cubs trail by 5.5 games, which is a lot with just 16 games remaining, but… you never know. And the Cubs do have the tiebreaker over Milwaukee.
In the wild-card race, the Giants lost to the Diamondbacks. Coupled with the Cubs’ win, that reduced the Cubs’ magic number to clinch a postseason spot to eight. And the Reds defeated the Padres, which reduced the Cubs’ magic number to clinch the top wild-card spot (and home field for a wild-card series) to 13.
The Cubs will enjoy a day off Thursday before they play games on 10 consecutive days, beginning with a three-game series at Wrigley Field against the Tampa Bay Rays. Matthew Boyd will start the series opener for the Cubs Friday afternoon. Shane Baz will go for the Rays. Game time Friday is 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network (and MLB Network outside the Cubs and Rays market territories).
