Tuesday’s 10-2 Cubs win over the Cardinals was a significant moment in this weird baseball season for the North Siders.
You will likely recall the Cubs got off to a 27-12 start this year, a stretch highlighted by two 10-game winning streaks.
Then they lost 22 of 29, an awful month that included a 10-game losing streak.
Winning Tuesday made the Cubs’ record since that 7-22 stretch… 27-12. So, more than two months after reaching 15 games over .500, the 2026 Cubs got there again.
Anyway, the team pounded out 17 hits in the demolition of the Cardinals, including three more from Alex Bregman, who’s now 7-for-9 in this series. He’s batting .314/.386/.627 (15-for-51) over his last 12 games with four doubles, four home runs, 11 RBI and 13 runs scored.
Let’s begin at the beginning, because the Cubs did.
With one out in the first, Seiya Suzuki singled and one out later, Bregman bounced a ball into the seats for an automatic double.
The Cubs blew the game open in the second inning with a five-run outburst off Michael McGreevy, who’d been the Cardinals’ best starter this year.
Michael Conforto led off with a single and Carson Kelly walked. A ground out by Pedro Ramirez advanced the runners to second and third. Pete Crow-Armstrong’s sacrifice fly made it 3-0 [VIDEO].
Kelly took third on that long, loud out and scored on this double by Suzuki [VIDEO].
Bregman singled and Happ walked, loading the bases, and Nico Hoerner singled in Busch and Bregman to make it 7-0 Cubs [VIDEO].
While all this was going on, Colin Rea was shutting down the Cardinals offense. They managed a single run in the fourth on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly, but the Cubs got that run right back in the top of the fifth. Hoerner walked and stole second, his 15th steal of the year. A wild pitch moved him to third, and this high chopper by Ramirez went for an RBI infield single [VIDEO].
Rea completed six innings, allowing just four hits and one run, one of his better recent outings. Here’s more on Rea’s evening [VIDEO].
More on Rea from BCB’s JohnW53:
Colin Rea’s quality start was his fifth, second most among Cubs starters. Shota Imanaga has nine.
Matthew Boyd, Edward Cabrera and Jameson Taillon each have four; Ben Brown, three; Javier Assad, two; and Cade Horton and David Peterson one, for a total of 33 in 107 games.
Tyler Ferguson relieved Rea and had a scoreless seventh. The Cubs added one more in the eighth. Ramirez bounced a ball into the seats for an automatic double, his third hit of the game, and Suzuki singled him in [VIDEO].
Andrew Wantz made his Cubs debut in the eighth, becoming the 34th man to pitch for the Cubs this year (not including Carson Kelly, who pitched one inning earlier this year). He threw a scoreless eighth on just eight pitches, helped out by this slick sliding catch by Dean in left field [VIDEO].
Then the Cubs got into double figures in runs in the ninth. Happ led off with a double, his 20th of the season. With about one-third of the year left, Happ thus has a chance at his fifth straight year with at least 30 doubles.
One out later, Justin Dean singled, with Happ stopping at third. A single by Kelly scored Dean [VIDEO].
Wantz was touched up for a run in the bottom of the ninth, but finished up the game for the 10-2 win. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].
The 17-hit offense tied for the third-most by the Cubs this year, and the team went 8-for-19 with RISP, which is a very good showing. More on Bregman’s two games in this series from John:
Alex Bregman is the first Cub this season to make at least seven hits in back-to-back games: one homer, three doubles and three singles.
Nico Hoerner had made six hits four times; Pete Crow-Armstrong, twice; and Dansby Swanson, once.
Michael Busch had the Cubs’ only seven-hit pair last season, July 4-5 vs. the Cardinals: four home runs, a double and two singles. There were eight six-hit pairs.
Bregman is the third Cub this year with at least three hits in consecutive games. Hoerner did it April 15 and 17; Swanson, June 30 and July 1.
Speaking of PCA, these two wins were accomplished with very little from the Cubs center fielder. He has gone 0-for-7 in this series with two walks and the sac fly in Tuesday’s win. This just shows you how strong this offense is, and of course PCA will likely have himself some big games going forward. This was the fourth straight game in which the Cubs had at least 12 hits, and they have made at least 11 hits in eight of their last 10 games. They have passed the Dodgers and are now third in runs with 558, just five behind the Pirates for the second-most runs in MLB.
Walk watch: The Cubs walked three times Tuesday and have 463 for the season, or 4.33 per game. Pace: 701. Franchise record: 656 in 2016.
I have not been able to use this in a while, but I think at least for this game:
The Phillies lost to the Marlins again Tuesday, so the Cubs now have a 4.5 game lead for the top wild card spot, and as they lead the Phillies by five in the loss column, that’s really a five-game advantage as the Cubs hold the tiebreaker. The Brewers won Tuesday and so the Cubs still trail by six games in the NL Central.
Matthew Boyd and Shōta Imanaga are lined up to start the next two games so I feel pretty good about the Cubs’ chances to win. Boyd will throw Wednesday evening in St. Louis and Dustin May goes for the Cardinals. Game time is again 6:45 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network (and also streaming on Peacock outside the Cubs and Cardinals market territories).
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