CHICAGO -- Seiya Suzuki hit Mariners starter Logan Gilbert’s inside splitter so well, left fielder Randy Arozarena barely moved a muscle.
Suzuki deposited the pitch over the left-field bleachers and nearly out of the ballpark in the bottom of the fifth for his 20th home run of the season (his third consecutive year reaching the mark). That two-run homer followed his solo shot from the first inning on a high first-pitch four-seamer, giving him the seventh multihomer game of his four-year Major League career.
Suzuki wasn’t able to hit the Cubs to a victory, though. Seattle did a bit better of a job taking advantage of the elements at Wrigley Field -- 92 degrees at first pitch with the wind blowing out all game -- and hitting mistakes from the opposing pitchers, blasting five home runs while handing Chicago a 14-6 loss Sunday afternoon.
“We struggled with the bottom of their lineup,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Colin [Rea] struggled with their left-handed hitters. Their left-handed hitters did a really nice job against him. We struggled with the bottom of the lineup, and if you go through a game and you're not getting the bottom of the lineup of a team out, it doesn't matter the team, you're going to give up some runs.”
In an unofficial home run derby, Suzuki’s two long balls led his team.
Suzuki has found another level of power this season. He’s now slugging .539 with a .283 ISO, up from career highs of .485 and .200, respectively, in 2023. Also, in 73 games, he’s one home run away from tying a career high -- which took him 132 games to do last season.
“Gilbert's a good pitcher. He's one of the good ones in this league,” Counsell said. “[Suzuki’s] first at-bat is a great example, just the aggressiveness and trying to turn that up just a little bit. I think it's not turned up a lot, but it's enough where I think it's made a big difference for him.”
Sunday was only Suzuki’s 12th start in right field, and he made two errors. Neither led to unearned runs, but they still motivated him to do something on the other side of the ball when he stepped to the plate in that bottom of the fifth.
“There's no excuse for anything. Once you're in the field, you have to make the play,” Suzuki said through interpreter Fumiya Nakata. “... What happened in the field [with the errors], I was trying to make it up for the team. I was trying to be more aggressive in the box.”
Suzuki’s homers were joined by one apiece from Kyle Tucker and Reese McGuire. Chicago has now homered four-plus times in a single game 10 times this season, the most by any ballclub.
However, it’s also the first time the Cubs have lost when homering four-plus times in a game this season, as their pitchers couldn’t keep the Mariners off the board.
Seattle first baseman Donovan Solano and right fielder Dominic Canzone both hit a pair of homers, and catcher Cal Raleigh hit his fourth of the weekend. Rea allowed four in his 5 1/3 innings of work (he gave up seven runs on 11 hits overall), while Chris Flexen gave up Solano’s second of the game in the top of the seventh.
Nate Pearson (recalled from Triple-A Iowa on Saturday) didn’t allow a homer in his two innings of work but still struggled, giving up five runs on five hits and two walks.
“Just came down to execution, I think,” Rea said of his performance. “They were super aggressive, and there were some mistakes over the middle of the plate.”
Combined, Chicago and Seattle went deep nine times on Sunday. The Cubs and an opposing team hitting at least nine homers in a game hasn’t happened at Wrigley Field since Aug. 2, 2023 (Reds). It’s the sixth time since 2000 that there have been nine or more hit at Wrigley in one game.
Nine is obviously a massive total, but it continued a stretch of games at the Friendly Confines featuring a ton of slugging. In each of the previous three games on the homestand, six home runs were hit.
With Sunday’s total, it’s the first time in Wrigley Field history there have been six or more homers combined by the Cubs and their opponents in four straight games -- and it didn’t hurt that the wind was blowing out again Sunday.
“It comes down to execution, throwing it in spots where we know that they're going to keep the ball down,” Rea said. “I just didn't do that very well.”