{"id":649452,"date":"2026-03-28T23:15:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T23:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/649452\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T23:15:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T23:15:46","slug":"cade-horton-and-ian-happ-power-the-cubs-to-a-10-2-victory-over-the-nationals-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/649452\/","title":{"rendered":"Cade Horton and Ian Happ power the Cubs to a 10-2 victory over the Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 Cade Horton threw four-hit ball into the seventh inning, Ian Happ broke the game open with a three-run homer in the sixth inning and the Chicago Cubs routed the Washington Nationals 10-2 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Miguel Amaya homered and finished with two hits and two RBIs, and Pete Crow-Armstrong added two hits. Nico Hoerner, Matt Shaw and Carson Kelly drove in runs as the Cubs avenged Thursday’s 10-4 opening day loss.<\/p>\n

Horton (1-0), the runner-up in the 2025 NL Rookie of the Year race, retired the first nine batters he faced before James Wood led off the fourth with a solo homer. The 24-year-old right-hander was charged with two runs in 6 1\/3 innings, with four strikeouts and a walk.<\/p>\n

Three Chicago relievers followed Horton and didn’t allow a hit.<\/p>\n

Washington shortstop CJ Abrams missed the game due to a death in the family. Replacement Nasim Nu\u00f1ez singled in a run. <\/p>\n

Miles Mikolas (0-1) allowed six runs, four earned, on seven hits in five innings in his first start for the Nationals after signing as a free agent.<\/p>\n

Horton pitched only three innings in his previous regular-season start, on Sept. 23 against the New York Mets, before leaving with back tightness that was diagnosed as a cracked right rib. He missed the Cubs’ playoff series against San Diego and Milwaukee, finishing last season at 11-4 with a 2.67 ERA.<\/p>\n

\"Chicago<\/p>\n

Chicago Cubs pitcher Cade Horton (22) delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Chicago. Credit: AP\/Matt Marton<\/p>\n

The Cubs grabbed a 4-0 lead in the second. Shaw\u2019s sacrifice fly opened the scoring, then Amaya’s bloop single scored a second run. Two unearned runs scored on Michael Busch\u2019s pop after Daylen Lile collided with Nu\u00f1ez in short left field.<\/p>\n

Wood\u2019s drive cut it to 4-1 in the fourth, but Amaya replied with a solo drive in the bottom half. <\/p>\n

The teams exchanged runs again in the fifth. Happ greeted Ken Waldichuk, Washington’s second reliever, with a shot to left, making it 9-2.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Washington RHP Jake Irvin faces Chicago LHP Shota Imanaga in Sunday\u2019s series finale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Cade Horton threw four-hit ball into the seventh inning, Ian Happ broke the game open with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,4,71,2524],"class_list":{"0":"post-649452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicagocubs","12":"tag-cubs","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-washington-nationals","15":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116309350037621648","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649452","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=649452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}