Game Recap: Happ blasts two homers as Cubs down Mariners |
Dustin Riese
· · 5 hours ago
CHICAGO - At some point, you knew the Chicago Cubs (46-30) offense would heat up, and perhaps the summer heat is just what this team needed. Looking to secure another winning homestand at Wrigley Field, the Cubs came into Saturday's matchup with the Seattle Mariners (38-37) hoping to avoid their first three-game home losing streak of the season.
After watching the Mariners connect for four homers on Friday, the Cubs knew that if they wanted to win this game, they needed to use the weather conditions to their advantage. They took that to heart in a big way as the Cubs connected for five homers on Saturday, two coming from Ian Happ, as the Cubs evened things up with the Mariners and secured a winning homestand with a 10-7 victory. It's worth noting that nine of the Cubs' 10 runs came off the homer, and that is something this team hasn't had for the past three weeks. Not only is it tough for an opposing pitcher to deal with these conditions, but they can be tough for a rookie as well, as Cade Horton was looking to keep his strong start to the season going. While the results weren't great, as Horton failed to make it out of the fifth, allowing six runs, only three of those runs were earned. As a result, his line looks a lot better than it initially appeared. The Cubs didn't need him to be at his best as they jumped on Emerson Hancock in a big way, pushing across nine runs on four homers in the first three innings before their offense cooled off later in the game. Two of the Cubs' four homers came in the bottom of the first as Happ led off the game with his second consecutive leadoff homer, only to have Kyle Tucker follow suit to give the Cubs an instant 2-0 lead. It was a lead they would never relinquish as the Cubs' offense had a lot of built-up frustration and took it out on Hancock from start to finish. Any time the wind is blowing out as much as it was on Saturday, two runs are nowhere near enough. After walking Jorge Polanco to begin the second inning, ahead of the Randy Arozarena double, the Mariners' offense threatened as they had a chance to tie things up. Credit Horton for limiting the damage as Luke Raley brought home the Mariners' first run on an RBI single before escaping the inning without further damage. As if the Cubs' fast start to the game wasn't enough, why not keep the pressure on in the second as Michael Busch led the inning off with a walk before advancing to third on the Carson Kelly double. Busch wound up scoring on a Nico Hoerner grounder to make things 3-1, with Vidal Brujan picking up a walk shortly after to keep the Cubs offense in business. Then came the big hit of the inning as Happ connected for his second homer in as many at-bats to break the game open 6-1. The long ball continued to play a massive role for the Cubs in the third as Chicago put the first two men on base only to have Busch connect for another three-run shot to open up a massive 9-1 lead. From that point on, it was all Seattle as the Cubs were held to just one run the rest of the way while the Mariners' offense began to chip away at the Cubs' lead to eventually chase Horton from the game. That all started with a leadoff double from Polanco in the fourth as the Mariners had another runner in scoring position. Polanco would come in to score on the Donovan Solano single later in the inning, while a sacrifice fly pulled the Mariners to within 9-3. The big inning of the day for Seattle came in the fifth, and it came after Horton allowed a two-out single to Polanco that put a pair of runners on base. On the verge of getting out of the fifth with a chance to win, Brujan committed a crucial error at the hot corner, which not only allowed for another run to score, but also extended the inning, which was all for Horton in this one. Drew Pomeranz took over from there, and two batters into his outing, this was a 9-6 game as Pomeranz allowed a pair of RBI singles to Raley and Solano, as this game was far from over. Not about to let Seattle have all of the momentum, Pete Crow-Armstrong connected for his 21st homer to begin the bottom of the fifth, and pushed the Cubs' lead back out to 10-6. That homer was the final run of the day for the Cubs as this was going to come down to a bullpen that has struggled the past few days to get the win. Despite posting a 0.00 ERA this season, Pomeranz wasn't anywhere close to his best on Saturday as he allowed a pair of singles to Ben Williamson and JP Crawford to begin the sixth and allowed four hits in just 1/3 innings of work. It was at this moment when the game changed as Brad Keller not only took over for Pomeranz, but tossed by far his best outing of the season as he went through the teeth of the Mariners lineup to strikeout the side and kept the Cubs in front. Keller came back out to pitch the seventh, and after hitting Arozarena to lead things off, he was within one out of finishing the seventh after picking up a massive double play. That was until Solano came through with another single to keep things alive and force the Cubs' hand to go back to their pen with Caleb Thielbar set to take over. It only took one pitch for Thielbar to finish the seventh as Happ came away with another one of his famous sliding catches in left to take a base hit away with the Cubs still holding a 10-6 lead. That score would hold until the ninth as Daniel Palencia was on to close things out as he made just his second appearance in the last seven games. As tough of an afternoon as Cal Raleigh had, the ninth inning was a prime example that you can't keep him quiet forever as he turned on a 99 MPH heater and drove it over the left field fence to make this a 10-7 game. With that homer, Raleigh made history in more ways than one, as he not only became the first catcher in MLB history to have 30 homers before the All-Star break, but also the first switch-hitter to accomplish that same feat, as his historic season continued. Palencia took care of the rest from there, as he slammed the door shut on the Mariners to give the Cubs a massive 10-7 win. The win moves the Cubs to 5-3 on this homestand as they will look to take the series on Sunday. Colin Rea is scheduled to make the start tomorrow as he will face off against Logan Gilbert, who was a trade target for the Cubs this past offseason. Seattle out-hit the Cubs 14-9 in this one, but it was Happ, Kelly, and Crow-Armstrong picking up two hits each to lead the offense.
