Game Recap: Cubs stay hot with series win over Rangers |
Dustin Riese
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- Wednesday, April 09 2025
CHICAGO - It may not have come easy, but the Chicago Cubs (9-5) keep racking up the wins as they have now won three straight series and eight of their last 10 games. This one came against a Texas Rangers (8-4) who came into this series leading the AL West and sporting one of the best ERAs in the game. Well, through two games that, ERA has been tested as the Cubs have scored 17 runs against the Texas staff despite unseasonably cold weather at Wrigley Field.
Tuesday was an interesting game for the Cubs, who fell behind early, battled back to take the lead, and blew the lead only to come away with a 10-6 victory to close out the series win. Dansby Swanson deserves some of the credit for that, as he connected for a game-winning two-run single in the eighth as part of his four RBI night as the Cubs offense continues to make pitchers pay. This was another one of those games where the Cubs had terrific starting pitching, with this start coming from Jameson Taillon. Say what you will about the right-hander, but the dude loves to pitch at Wrigley, evidenced by his 2.18 ERA at Wrigley last season, including a 0.34 ERA in September. Although this wasn't his best start, he still gave the Cubs six strong innings of three-run baseball, walking one and striking out six. That is all you can ask for from your starting pitchers, and with Patrick Corbin making his first start of the season, you had to think three runs would be enough. For the most part, it was, as the Cubs chased Corbin after four innings, as he allowed three runs on five hits. He walked two and didn't strike out a man, but he did a great job keeping his team within striking distance. It didn't take the Rangers long to open up the scoring in this one, as they went the first 10 innings without a run. All it took was one-out Adolis Garcia single to get things started as he advanced to second on the lone walk by Taillon. Then came an unlucky break for the starter as Josh Jung bounced one off Taillon's glove for an infield single as the bases were loaded with no outs. That proved to be costly as Jonah Heim kept the line moving with another single to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead before Taillon settled in to avoid further damage. Not to be out done, it was the Cubs offense responding in the bottom of the second with Swanson unloading for his fourth homer of the season to make this a 2-1 game.
“You always know he’s going to defend and play great shortstop and be a great leader,” said Cubs righty Jameson Taillon on Swanson. “Offensively, he’s obviously got juice, but I just see him out there just playing really good situational baseball, too. And then, when people make mistakes, he’s capitalizing.
“I’ve seen him move runners and get them in from third, stuff like that -- Have selfless at-bats. And then, obviously, he’s hit some big homers, too. He’s in a great spot.”
That homer was followed by a one out single from Pete Crow-Armstrong and a pair of walks as it was the Cubs turn to load the bases.
Like the Rangers in the top half of the inning, the Cubs made the most of that scoring chance, with Seiya Suzuki coming through with an RBI single to put the Cubs in front 3-2. Their lead didn't last long, with Wyatt Langford depositing a Taillon curveball into the left field seats to tie things back up, but after that, the Rangers had no answers as Taillon kept them off the board the rest of his outing.
With the starting pitching doing their part once again, it would come down to the offense, and with Jacob Webb in to replace Corbin in the fifth, the Cubs feasted on the situation. Once again, it was Suzuki in the middle of it all as he collected his third hit in as many at-bats with another single while singles from Kyle Tucker and Justin Turner loaded the bases with no outs.
A big reason for the overall success of the offense thus far is a team hitting .293 with runners in scoring position to start the season. Even with Swanson putting the Cubs back in front with a sacrifice fly, it was another hit with runners on base that broke the game open as Nico Hoerner picked up an RBI single to push the Cubs lead to 6-3, and their best relievers set to take over.
After pitching exceptionally well to start the season, Julian Merryweather and Porter Hodge ran into trouble as they combined to allow three runs over the next two innings as the Cubs 6-3 lead turned into a 6-6 tie. Two of those runs came off Merryweather in the seventh, with Leody Taveras collecting an RBI triple to make things 6-4 before coming home on a Marcus Semien grounder, pulling the Rangers within one.
One inning later, the Cubs fell victim to an unlucky bounce. A two-out single from Josh Smith was followed by a misplay from Tucker in right, resulting in a game-tying RBI triple. At this moment, Cubs fans had deja vu from last year, as this was looking to be the Cubs' third blown game in 12.
Leave it to Texas to change all that as a costly misplay by Taveras in center resulted in Ian Happ reaching second to lead things off as the Cubs were thretening to take the lead late. Three batters later, the Cubs had the bases loaded for the third time in the game and Swanson coming to the plate as he had an opportunity to play hero.
Swanson did just that as he connected for a massive two-run single that not only gave the Cubs the lead for good 8-6, but it was the end of what was a season-high four RBIs for the shortstop.
Crow-Armstrong added some insurance runs later in the inning with a two-run single of his own as the Cubs entered the ninth leading 10-6.
Ryan Pressly and the defense finished things off from there as the right-hander worked around a pair of singles with the help of his defense to lock down the win and secure another series win 10-6. Suzuki and Crow-Armstrong led the Cubs with three hits in what was a 12-hit offensive onslaught. The Cubs also stole four more bases to add to their MLB lead and are now 25 of 26 this season. Chicago will go for the series sweep on Wednesday when they send Shota Imanaga to the mound against Tommy Mahle.
