Great eight: Cubs set franchise record with 8 home runs in win over St. Louis
The sign of a good offense is when postgame discussion involves where a particular home run ball landed.
In the third inning of Friday's 11-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals, both Pete Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch hit the right-field scoreboard, something that's happened just 26 times since it was built in 2015.
Busch's homer was credited for traveling 428 feet and it was tough to tell exactly where it first hit the board, but Crow-Armstrong was convinced it cleared the electronic display.
“Did Michael get that ball over?” Crow-Armstrong asked in the clubhouse. “Almost over? Very top? It looked it hit the B (in the Budweiser sign) above it. That's cool. That's majestic.”
The Cubs set a franchise record by blasting 8 home runs on a warm, muggy, generally windless July 4 at Wrigley Field. Busch hit 3 himself, becoming the first Cub to do that since Rafael Ortega in 2021 at Washington.
Crow-Armstrong hit two, while Seiya Suzuki, Carson Kelly and Dansby Swanson had one each. Six of the eight happened in the first three innings against Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas, who became the first player in Cardinals history to give up 6 homers in a game.
After the final out, the five sluggers posed for a photo near the dugout to commemorate history being made.
“I'm going to need that picture to be signed by those guys,” Busch said. “You grow up dreaming of playing in the big leagues and to be able to do it and then to stitch your name in the Chicago Cubs record books is pretty cool.”
Cubs manager Craig Counsell kept things in perspective with all the attention on his team's record-setting offense.
“It's the sport,” he said. “It took us 10 innings to score 1 run (Thursday against Cleveland) and that was the same team. So that's the sport, that's what's crazy about it.”
And there was actually more to this game than home runs. Crow-Armstrong made another amazing catch for the second out of the first inning, a parallel-to-the ground dive to rob Masyn Winn on a ball StatCast gave a 74% chance of being a hit.
After the game PCA was asked to compare the feeling of a 111-mph home run versus a great diving grab.
“Those two swings felt really good,” he said. “But I'm out there to play defense and go work for my pitcher. That's what I'll take 10 times out of 10, for sure.”
Then there's Cubs starter Colin Rea, who pitched in the exact same conditions as Mikolas, but allowed just a single run in 6⅔ innings. Rea was sharp from the start, hitting the low edges of the strike zone.
“Nothing out of the ordinary or anything,” Rea said of his pitching plan. “We just kind of stuck to our strengths. I thought Carson did a great job (at catcher) and then, Pete's play in the first inning, you never know. If he doesn't make it, that's a game-changing play early in the game.”
Not even watching the Cubs hit back-to-back home runs in each of the first two innings (Suzuki-PCA, then Busch-Kelly) fazed Rea on the mound.
“I don't think that really goes into my head at all as far as what we're doing offensively, the conditions, anything like that,” Rea said. “It's just executing.”
Then Counsell managed to get the fans antsy by sending infielder Jon Berti to the mound in the ninth to protect an 11-1 lead. He gave up 2 hits, 3 walks, walked in a run, but made an impressive defensive play. Thomas Saggese hit a liner off Berti's leg, but he chased it down and threw out Alec Burleson trying to scramble back to third.
“That play at third base was one of the coolest things I've ever seen,” Crow-Armstrong said. “That's an infielder playing pitcher and showing his instincts. That was so cool.”
The Cubs are planning a bullpen game Saturday with scheduled starter Jameson Taillon going on the injured list with a calf strain. Drew Pomeranz is listed as the new starter.