I’m not sure what going on the road or playing in Anaheim or both has done to Kyle Tucker, but whatever it is, I hope the Cubs bottle it up and keep it around for the rest of the year.
Tucker smashed two home runs for his first multi-homer game as a Cub. Reese McGuire added a grand slam and the Cubs demolished the Angels 12-1, their first game scoring in double digits since they beat the Brewers 10-3 on July 30.
Let’s begin at the beginning.
The story of this game beyond all the Cubs hitting was Cade Horton, who absolutely breezed through the first two innings, throwing just 13 pitches for those six outs, all strikes. In fact, Horton’s first 21 pitches of the game were strikes, something that had been done only one other time in the last 27 years:
Horton had some help from his defense — this sliding catch by Pete Crow-Armstrong [VIDEO].
Tucker put the Cubs on the board in the third. With two out, Michael Busch singled and Tucker sent his 20th home run into the right-field seats [VIDEO].
More on Tucker’s blast from BCB’s JohnW53:
Kyle Tucker had not homered in back-to-back games since June 21-22 at home vs. Mariners. This was his 48th game since then.
He also homered May 20-21 and had a four-game streak March 29-April 1.
Horton breezed through the third, with a brief delay after a ground ball by Logan O’Hoppe hit Horton in the leg. There was no injury issue and Horton continued.
The Cubs blew the game open in the fourth. With one out, Ian Happ and Nico Hoerner walked, and one out after that, Dansby Swanson was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Up stepped Reese McGuire. Boom! [VIDEO]
McGuire’s seventh homer of the year was his first career grand slam and put the Cubs up 6-0. More on the slam from John:
Reese McGuire’s grand slam was the Cubs’ fourth this year, 360th in the regular season since 1876 and 336th of the Modern Era. It was their 152nd on the road. McGuire became the 211th different Cub to hit a slam.
The Cubs put four more on the board in the sixth, all after two were out. Willi Castro singled with one out and after Swanson flied out, Castro advanced to second on a wild pitch. McGuire walked and Busch singled in Castro [VIDEO].
That was followed by Tucker’s second homer of the game [VIDEO].
The three-run blast gave Tucker five RBI, his most as a Cub, and made it a 10-0 game.
Horton completed six innings and departed having thrown only 74 pitches (55 strikes), an absolutely dominant performance. He allowed three hits (all singles), issued one walk and struck out seven [VIDEO].
Over his last six starts, Horton has allowed two runs in 37 innings for an ERA of 0.49, with 34 strikeouts and just one home run allowed. That’s ace-level pitching, and I would think Horton might get some Rookie of the Year consideration. Best of all, the low pitch count means less stress on Horton’s arm and with Monday’s off day, he will get an extra day of rest before his next outing, which should come up Friday against the Rockies.
Here’s more on Horton’s outing [VIDEO].
The Cubs’ last two runs of the game scored in the seventh. Owen Caissie led off, batting for Happ, and doubled. Hoerner singled, with Caissie taking third, and one out later Swanson doubled in Caissie [VIDEO].
Hoerner took third on that double and scored on a sacrifice fly by McGuire [VIDEO].
The five RBI matched a career high for McGuire. The Cubs are so fortunate to have McGuire around to fill in for the injured Miguel Amaya. He’s played good defense (throwing out 30.8 percent of runners trying to steal) and has a 101 OPS+ and 92 WRC+, perfectly good offensive numbers for a backup catcher.
Also regarding all those RBI by Tucker and McGuire:
Ben Brown finished up, throwing the last three innings allowing just one run, a home run by Jo Adell. For that three-inning outing wrapping up a blowout, Brown recorded his first career save. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].
Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
I think you will all agree that, at least for this game:
The Cubs creeped a bit closer to the Brewers in the NL Central, as Milwaukee lost to the Giants 7-1. That puts the Cubs six games back with 32 to go. Still a fairly large deficit, but… who knows? The Cubs also matched their season high by going to 20 games over .500 at 75-55. As you know from this article, the last time any Cubs team was more than 20 games over .500 was the last day of the 2018 season. After they lost the tiebreaker that year to the Brewers, they finished 95-68, or 27 games over. Onward!
The Cubs will go for the series sweep Sunday afternoon in Anaheim. Jameson Taillon starts for the Cubs and old friend Kyle Hendricks will go for the Angels. Game time is 3:07 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.