Game Recap: Suzuki smacks two homers as Cubs sweep A's |
Dustin Riese
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- 20 hours ago
SACRAMENTO - For whatever reason, the Chicago Cubs (5-4) have had a tendency to play down to their competition in recent seasons. You saw that last season, toward the end of the year as the Cubs started to lose several series late in the season that they had no business losing.
That included a series against the Sacramento Athletics (2-5) at Wrigley Field last season where the Athletics not only won the series, but wound up winning two straight games to close out the series. If the Cubs want to be taken seriously this season or to win the NL Central crown, not only must they beat the teams they should beat, but they also need to find a way to beat them the way most good teams do. If this week was any indication of what the Cubs are capable of against less superior teams, 2025 could be shaping up to be a great season, as the Cubs made quick work of the Athletics on Wednesday, 10-2, to close out the three-game sweep. This wasn't just an ordinary sweep, as the Cubs' offense was on a series-long heater, scoring double-digit runs in two of the games while outscoring the A's 35-9 in the process. Looking to bounce back from a horrendous outing last time out against Arizona, Jameson Taillon took the ball for the Cubs and delivered the type of bounce-back start the Cubs were hoping to see. Despite struggling with his command early and throwing more than 40 pitches through two innings, Taillon settled in nicely and managed to give the Cubs six strong innings of work, allowing two runs and striking out seven.
It was a very similar start to what Justin Steele had on Tuesday, as Steele struggled in the early going before settling in to put forth his best start of the year. The Cubs needed this type of outing from Taillon, as he was up against left-hander Jeffrey Springs, who was coming off a dominant first start the last time out.
A big reason for the Cubs success in this series was not only scoring first, but scoring quickly in an effort to take all the momentum away. That was once again the case in this one, as the Cubs put up a four-spot in the second inning to grab a 4-0 lead and never looked back. Carson Kelly opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly before a three-run Seiya Suzuki homer broke the game open 4-0.
That was just the beginning of what was a massive day for Suzuki, as he would connect for a second home run later in the game, part of his five-RBI night. Already with a four-run lead, the Cubs continued to keep the pressure on in the third as Matt Shaw brought in Justin Turner with a two-out single, pushing the Cubs' lead to 5-0.
As was the case throughout the series, scoring first wasn't an issue for the Cubs, but holding that lead in the early innings was an issue as Sacramento had a tendancy to answer all of the Cubs big innings. While they may have had only two runs in the ballgame, both of those runs came home on one swing as Brent Rooker connected for his second homer in as many days to pull the Athletics within 5-2 in the bottom of the third.
Those were the only runs of the day for Sacramento, as the Cubs' pitching was dialed in for the rest of the way, while their offense ended the game with five unanswered runs. Three of those came in the fourth inning, as Suzuki connected for his second home run in as many at-bats to make the score 6-2. It was the fourth multi-homer game of his career and he is starting to get on one of his annual hot stretches.
Kyle Tucker managed to work a walk shortly after the Suzuki homer, but with two outs in the inning, the Cubs were in danger of letting a scoring chance get away. Leave it to Nico Hoerner and Pete Crow-Armstrong to change that, as the duo connected for back-to-back RBI hits, pushing the Cubs' lead to 8-2.
Despite allowing a pair of singles to Jacob Wilson and Luis Urias in the bottom of the fourth, this marked the beginning of an impressive stretch for Taillon, who struck out the side in the fourth and added another in the fifth. Throw in his final strikeout in the sixth, and five of his seven strikeouts came over the final three innings, marking an excellent start for the right-hander.
As if eight runs wasn't enough, the Cubs offense had no intention of slowing down as they continued to go on the attack in the seventh. With Crow-Armstrong getting hit by a pitch before stealing second, the Cubs once again had a runner in scoring position with less than two outs. This was an area of concern for the Cubs last season, as they have historically been one of the worst teams when it comes to hitting with runners in scoring position.
Although the season is still less than 10 games in, the overall results with runners in scoring position have been positive thus far as Shaw came through with an RBI single to second for his second RBI of the day. With Kelly working another walk to put a pair of runners on base, it was Suzuki closing out his massive five RBI day with an RBI single as the Cubs opened up a 10-2 lead.
That would be all the offense for either side, as the Cubs turned things over to Brad Keller, Nate Pearson, and Eli Morgan, who managed to close things out for the win. Once again it was the offense that set the tone as they came away with 10 runs on 11 hits. Suzuki led the way offensively for the Cubs, collecting three hits and driving in five runs.
The Cubs also benefitted from Happ picking up two hits from the leadoff role while Shaw and Armstrong added multi-hit games and three RBIs from the bottom of the order. Chicago will now enjoy a day off on Thursday before their home opener on Friday against the Padres.
