![\"Recap](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pvrgmphcqcga7ocw.jpg\")
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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<\/a>.<\/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 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 Cubs<\/a>Sports<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cade Horton threw four-hit ball into the seventh inning, Ian Happ broke the game open with a three-run…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,4,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-649668","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-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116309967612924499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649668","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=649668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}