In the first, second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings Monday night at Wrigley Field, the Cubs had just five baserunners, only two getting past second base.

Fortunately, a five-run fifth featuring two-run homers by Dansby Swanson and Seiya Suzuki provided more than enough offense. That, plus Colin Rea again pitching very well, resulted in a 5-2 Cubs win over the Marlins in the first game of a six-game homestand.

Rea and Cal Quantrill matched up evenly for the first four innings. Rea allowed four hits in that time, Quantrill just one (a third-inning double by Miguel Amaya, who had three hits on the evening).

Rea got help from his defense. Here’s a nice catch in foul territory by Jon Berti [VIDEO].

Berti, incidentally, had a cheering section in the bleachers (Bluesky link):

The Cubs were hitting baseballs hard in the first four innings, though right at Marlins fielders. Here’s one of those, stopped by Ronny Simon in the first inning off Kyle Tucker [VIDEO].

If Simon’s name sounds familiar, it should. He’s the minor leaguer the Cubs sent to the Diamondbacks as the PTBNL for Andrew Chafin in late 2020. The D-backs eventually traded him to the Rays and he signed with the Marlins this past offseason as a free agent. The Cubs, of course, eventually traded Chafin for Daniel Palencia — so that seems a pretty good return.

Here’s another Marlins snag of a hard-hit Cubs ball, by Graham Pauley off Swanson in the third [VIDEO].

You had to figure those hard-hit balls would eventually fall in, and in the fifth, they did. Nico Hoerner led off the inning with a single. Swanson followed that with his ninth homer of the year [VIDEO].

About that home run:

Most HR as a Shortstop this season
9 Dansby Swanson
9 Francisco Lindor
6 Elly De La Cruz
6 Mookie Betts
6 Trevor Story
6 Corey Seager

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) May 13, 2025

Pretty good company there, I’d say.

Amaya followed Swanson’s homer with his second double of the game. He took third on a wild pitch. Another hard-hit line drive, by Pete Crow-Armstrong, was snagged by old friend Matt Mervis at first base.

Tucker followed with this triple [VIDEO].

That made it 3-0, and Suzuki made it 5-0 with his 10th home run of the season [VIDEO].

That ball was crushed! [VIDEO]

The five-run inning produced a single, double, triple and home run. More on the “inning cycle” from BCB’s JohnW53:

This was the seventh game of the season in which the Cubs hit for a cycle as a team. It was the first in which they made all four kinds of hits in one inning.

From 2021-24, in order, the Cubs had 15, 17, 14 and 13 team cycles.

And more on Amaya’s second double:

Tonight’s game was Miguel Amaya’s fourth in his last 46, since Aug. 26 of last year, in which he hit two doubles. Christian Bethancourt had had a pair on Aug. 7.

Bethancourt was the first Cubs catcher with multiple doubles since Willson Contreras did it for the last of 11 times as a Cub on June 29, 2022.

That was all the Cubs needed. Rea threw well until the seventh, when he issued a leadoff walk. That was erased on a double play, but then Simon singled.

Rea was allowed to stay in the game, which is when he made his only real mistake, a two-run homer by Derek Hill. Overall, though, yet another excellent outing from Rea, his longest of the season both by innings (6⅔) and pitches (98).

Here are Rea’s four strikeouts on the evening [VIDEO].

And here’s more on Rea’s start [VIDEO].

Palencia replaced Rea and finished off the seventh with a ground out, then threw a scoreless eighth.

Drew Pomeranz was summoned to throw the ninth. The Marlins sent up a couple of right-handed pinch hitters to counter that move, but Pomeranz got through the inning scoreless, despite a two-out single. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].

A rarity for Pomeranz, just the ninth save of his career. And:

Drew Pomeranz: first save since Aug 11, 2020.

2 months after Pete Crow-Armstrong was drafted.

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) May 13, 2025

And so, the Cubs begin this homestand (and stretch of 21 games vs. teams that have records under .500) with a satisfying, well-played wins. Thus:

Here’s Swanson on his home run and other game thoughts [VIDEO].

Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].

There is one more bit of news that came out shortly after the game ended:

Breaking News – The Cubs will call up C/ DH Moises Ballesterous from Triple A Iowa. He will likely be in the starting lineup tomorrow. Ian Happ to go on IL with oblique issue.

— Bruce Levine (@MLBBruceLevine) May 13, 2025

Presuming this happens, I would imagine Moises Ballesteros is joining the team to DH — he’s not ready to catch at the MLB level, though he’ll certainly continue to work on his catching with Amaya, Carson Kelly and the MLB coaching staff. He’ll likely DH while Happ is out, with Suzuki continuing to play left field.

And I would imagine this could mean the end of Justin Turner’s time with the Cubs, as there won’t really be a slot for him anymore, and the Cubs will need the 40-man roster spot for Ballesteros. Or, as Josh mentioned in the comments in BCB After Dark, it could be Tyson Miller to the 60-day IL, as Miller has recently suffered a setback in his rehab.

As always, we await developments.

Tuesday evening at Wrigley Field, the Cubs go for the series win over the Marlins. Ben Brown will start for the Cubs and Valente Bellozo will go for Miami. Game time is again 6:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.