{"id":152414,"date":"2025-07-04T23:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T23:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/152414\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T23:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T23:17:11","slug":"chicago-cubs-set-team-record-with-8-home-runs-in-11-3-rout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/152414\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs set team record with 8 home runs in 11-3 rout"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Cubs celebrated the Fourth of July by putting on the biggest fireworks display in franchise history.<\/p>\n

The Cubs hit a team-record eight home runs Friday \u2014 led by three from Michael Busch and two from Pete-Crow Armstrong \u2014 as they rolled to an 11-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in the opener of a three-game series at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a fun game to be a part of,\u201d Busch said. \u201cBaseball on July 4th, and especially to do it at Wrigley Field, to get out of here with a win and have so much excitement in the game, that\u2019s one game I\u2019ll never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seiya Suzuki, Dansby Swanson and Carson Kelly also homered for the Cubs (53-35) on a day that turned out to be historically sweet after starting on a sour note.<\/p>\n

Before the game, the Cubs placed starting pitcher Jameson Taillon on the 15-day injured list with a right calf strain, and manager Craig Counsell said he expects Taillon to be out \u201cmore than a month.\u201d Jordan Wicks was recalled from Triple-A Iowa.<\/p>\n

Taillon\u2019s injury will again test the depth of the Cubs pitching staff, just eight days after they got lefty Shota Imanaga back from a hamstring injury that sidelined him for nearly two months.<\/p>\n

Of course, it would help if the Cubs can continue to swing the bats with anywhere near the effectiveness they did Friday.<\/p>\n

The eight home runs, which included six off Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas, featured three instances of the Cubs going back to back. Suzuki and Crow-Armstrong did it in the first, Busch and Kelly in the second and Swanson and Busch in the seventh.<\/p>\n

Crow-Armstrong and Busch both blasted balls off the right-field video board in the third as well.<\/p>\n

After Swanson tied the franchise record with the seventh homer of the day, Busch broke it five pitches later.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Cubs’ Michael Busch gestures after hitting his third home run of the day in the seventh inning against the Cardinals on Friday, July 4, 2025, at Wrigley Field. (AP Photo\/David Banks)<\/p>\n

Busch, who is up to 17 homers on the season, became the first Cub to hit three in a game since Rafael Ortega against the Washington Nationals on Aug. 1, 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s turned into, really, a great offensive player,\u201d Counsell said of Busch. \u201cLast year it felt like there were ups and downs during the season. This year he\u2019s lengthened out the ups and shortened the downs, essentially, and you end up with what you\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good hitter who\u2019s continuing to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busch and Crow Armstrong each went 4-for-4 as Crow-Armstrong raised his season total to 23 home runs, one behind Suzuki\u2019s team-high 24.<\/p>\n

Crow-Armstrong said the team expects to have offensive success on a daily basis. The Cubs rank second in the majors with 475 runs, trailing only the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, who had 494 entering Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cDay in, day out, watching people\u2019s processes and how they dig themselves out of little holes and all that, it\u2019s nice to be able to join in on other people\u2019s successes,\u201d Crow-Armstrong said. \u201cIt\u2019s really easy to appreciate what we\u2019re doing right now. This is the best offense I\u2019ve ever been a part of \u2014 ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Cubs’ Dansby Swanson, right, is greeted by Pete Crow-Armstrong (4) after hitting a two-run home run against the Cardinals during the seventh inning Friday, July 4, 2025, at Wrigley Field. (AP Photo\/David Banks)<\/p>\n

It was the rivals\u2019 first meeting since a 3-0 Cubs win June 26 in St. Louis that ended with the benches clearing after closer Daniel Palencia and former Cub Willson Contreras exchanged words. Contreras was upset after getting hit by a pitch in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n

Contreras, who apologized after that game, received a fair number of boos from the crowd before each at-bat Friday as he went 0-for-3.<\/p>\n

While the Cubs were piling up runs, the Cardinals (47\u201342) \u2014 who had been shut out in three straight games by the Pittsburgh Pirates \u2014 managed just one hit through eight innings before scoring twice in the ninth on two hits with infielder Jon Berti on the mound for the Cubs.<\/p>\n

Colin Rea (6-3) went 6\u2154 innings for the win, allowing only Brendan Donovan\u2019s homer in the fourth.<\/p>\n

Rea\u2019s strong outing was especially important ahead of what\u2019s expected to be a bullpen day Saturday in the wake of the injury to Taillon, who had been scheduled to start.\u00a0Drew Pomeranz will be the opener.<\/p>\n

Going forward, Counsell said the Cubs could use Chris Flexen as a starter. Flexen made 30 starts for the Chicago White Sox last season and has revitalized his career in the Cubs bullpen this year, going 5-0 with an 0.62 ERA.<\/p>\n

Counsell also noted the upcoming All-Star break will give the team short-term flexibility with its pitching staff.<\/p>\n

As for Friday, though, there was plenty to celebrate. Busch, Crow-Armstrong, Suzuki, Swanson and Kelly posed for a postgame photo to mark the record occasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou grow up dreaming of playing in the big leagues, and then to be able to get your name in Chicago Cub record books is pretty cool,\u201d Busch said. \u201cI\u2019m going to need to get that photo signed by all those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Cubs celebrated the Fourth of July by putting on the biggest fireworks display in franchise history.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,34,138,24,4245,161,733,25909,5173,37,4,35,105,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-152414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-carson-kelly","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-cubs","12":"tag-chicagocubs","13":"tag-cubs","14":"tag-dansby-swanson","15":"tag-home-run-record","16":"tag-jameson-taillon","17":"tag-michael-busch","18":"tag-mlb","19":"tag-pete-crow-armstrong","20":"tag-seiya-suzuki","21":"tag-st-louis-cardinals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114797520276450889","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}