Game Recap: Cubs close out strong homestand with win over Reds

David Banks - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese · Senior Writer · Sunday, June 01 2025

CHICAGO - It's hard to believe that the Chicago Cubs (37-22) managed to go 5-1 on their most recent homestand despite being held to four runs or less in five of those games. Granted, the conditions at Wrigley Field this week played a role in some of that, but the Cubs' offense has been in a bit of a funk this week.

The lone game where the offense set the tone was on Sunday as the Cubs looked to take another series from the Cincinnati Reds (29-31). Backed by another strong starting pitching performance from Jameson Taillon and a three RBI day from Michael Busch, it was the Cubs taking care of business as they topped the Reds 7-3.

Even with the offense struggling for the better part of the past week, the Cubs' starting pitching has been their saving grace, as that alone is the main reason why they went 5-1 on their homestand. Taillon may not have had his best stuff on the mound, but any time you can go 6 1/3 innings and allow three hits, you are doing something right, as Taillon was locked in from the start.

He did allow one home run to Elly De La Cruz, which remains an issue, but for the most part, he was able to limit the damage, which is all you can ask for. The same can't be said about Nick Martinez, who got roughed up after the Reds starting pitching kept them in the first two games. Martinez struggled to get hitters out, as he walked two and struck out two while allowing five runs in 4 1/3 innings of work.

Two of the three hits Taillon allowed came against De La Cruz as he has hammered the Cubs pitching so far this year. You got a sense of how things would go in this during the first inning as Martinez hit Kyle Tucker before allowing a walk to Seiya Suzuki. Tucker was thrown out trying to steal a second later in the inning, which proved costly as Pete Crow-Armstrong added a single before Martinez escaped trouble.

The top of the Cubs' order continued to do most of the early damage against Martinez as they led the charge for what wound up being the big inning of the day, as the Cubs pushed across four runs in the third to take a 4-0 lead. Having Tucker start things off with a double certainly helped as he came in to score on the Crow-Armstrong single that put the Cubs on top 1-0.

That single opened a string of four consecutive hits as a Dansby Swanson double pushed the Cubs lead to 2-0 before Busch capped off the massive inning by delivering a two-run shot to push the Cubs lead to 4-0. Nico Hoerner closed out that string of hits with a single but was unable to tack on any more runs.

Busch continued to add to the Cubs' lead in the fifth as he capped off a three-RBI day with a single that opened up a 5-0 Cubs lead. After keeping the Reds scoreless for 16-plus innings, the Reds finally put an end to that in the sixth as a two-out walk to Santiago Espinal continued the inning and kept things alive for De la Cruz and the heart of the Reds order.

De La Cruz is the one guy in this lineup who can beat you, and with his two-run homer, it was the Reds pulling within 5-2 and making this a game. Still holding a 5-2 lead in the seventh, it was the Reds who started to dig themselves into an even bigger hole, as Brent Suter found out the hard way what happens when you give the Cubs' offense chances.

Not only did Seiya Suzuki reach base on a leadoff error, but the Reds committed back-to-back errors to begin the inning as the Cubs had two runners on with no outs. Things only got worse from there as Busch took a walk to load the bases, which was followed by another massive Nico Hoerner single as the Cubs surged in front 7-2.

That would be it for the Cubs offense, as it was going to be up to the bullpen to keep things there. The Reds did manage to push home a run off Ryan Brasier in the ninth, but that doesn't take away what the Cubs' pen has accomplished as of late, as they have been the best bullpen in baseball since May 12.

Several Cubs had massive games at the plate as Crow-Armstrong and Hoerner paced the Cubs with three hits. Busch also added two hits with his three RBIs and managed to reach base four times in total.

Chicago will now head into the final three games of this 21-game stretch with a 14-4 mark thus far and will close things out against the Washington Nationals with their series beginning on Tuesday.