Game Recap: Cubs sizzling offensively in thrashing of Marlins

Sam Navarro - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese - Senior Writer - 7 hours ago

MIAMI - It was a historic night at Loan Depot Park in Miami as the Chicago Cubs (29-20) looked to rebound from a tough loss on Monday. Looking to secure no worse than a season split with the Miami Marlins (19-28), it was the Cubs' offense that came to play, as that continues to be the story of the season.

Not only do the Cubs lead the National League with a plus 82 run differential, but the next closest team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, are sitting at plus 59. That is a wide gap, but the gap was much closer than that when this one started, only to have the Cubs score eight times in the fifth and five times in the ninth as Chicago rolled to the 14-1 victory.

It marked the 11th time this season where the Cubs scored more than 10 runs and the third time they recorded 21 hits in a game. That has some historical meaning as that ties the team record set in 1937 as this team has been firing on all cylinders offensively. Taking the ball for the Cubs was right-hander Jameson Taillon, who was looking to continue his dominance of the Fish.

Entering the game with a 1.49 ERA against the Marlins, this is by far Taillon's best ERA against any opponent, and you can see why. Despite striking out two and walking three, Taillon limited the Marlins offense as he allowed just one solo shot in seven innings. It was the kind of outing the Cubs needed from him as his last few outings have been plagued by the long ball.

Going up against hard-throwing Ryan Weathers, who handcuffed the Cubs last week, things were trending in that direction again as Weathers allowed a first-inning Kyle Tucker homer as his only run of the game. Although he wasn't as dominant as last week against the Cubs, Weathers still held the Cubs to that lone run through five innings and did his part to keep the Marlins in it.

As mentioned, the long ball has been an issue for Taillon over his past several starts, and it may be an issue in this one with Nick Fortes taking Taillon deep in the third to tie things up 1-1. That would be the only run of the day for the Marlins as Taillon did a fantastic job pitching to contact and letting his defense do the work for him.

With the score still tied at one and entering the fifth, the Marlins called on their pen to keep things close as Weathers' day was done on the mound. That is all the Cubs' offense needed to see as they began to make a late-game statement against what has been an excellent pen this season. After Seiya Suzuki led off the sixth with a walk, Calvin Faucher allowed a pair of singles to Tucker and Carson Kelly as the bases were loaded with no outs.

Unlike previous games where the Cubs would use the long ball to make teams pay in these situations, they instead singled the Marlins to death as Dansby Swanson, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Nico Hoerner tacked on RBI singles, leading to four runs to put the Cubs in front for good, 5-1. After Justin Turner brought home another run with a sacrifice fly, Matt Shaw added to the Cubs' lead as his RBI double broke the game open 7-1.

That was only the beginning for the Cubs as Suzuki came back up for the second time in the sixth and left the yard as his two-run blast capped off an eight-run inning with the Cubs in front 9-1. Given how Taillon was pitching throughout, you had a feeling that nine runs would be enough, but this bullpen doesn't give you that much confidence.

With Taillon retiring nine of the final 11 hitters he faced to get through seven innings, the Cubs had plenty of options about how to attack the final two innings and chose to go with Chris Flexen, who has yet to give up an earned run during his short time in Chicago. While most of the Cubs' damage came in that one inning, things were about to get weird in the ninth as the Marlins not only went with a position player in Javier Sanoja to pitch, but the Cubs began to empty their bench to get everyone involved.

Once again, it was a single fest getting everything started as Crow-Armstrong, Jon Berti, and Turner all picked up singles to load the bases with one out. On the verge of leaving the bases loaded, Ian Happ came through with his first hit since his return from the IL as his single brought home the 10th run for the Cubs.

That was followed up by a pair of RBI doubles from Suzuki and Michael Busch to score four more runs to help extend the Cubs' lead to 14-1. They would go on to win by that score as Flexen closed things out in the ninth to give the Cubs a series tying victory and puts them in a position to take the series on Wednesday.

With his four RBIs, Suzuki has 43 RBIs on the season and has taken the Major League lead over Wilmer Flores. Kelly was the lone starter not to record an RBI, as this was a balanced offensive attack from start to finish. The Cubs will look to pick up the series victory on Wednesday when they send Cade Horton to the mound against Max Mayer.