CHICAGO -- The Cubs were on a nice run in the few weeks leading into the All-Star break, but knew they could not let the season’s intermission halt that momentum. One series into the second half, the North Siders look to have picked up where they left off.
With a 10-1 victory over the Twins on Sunday at Wrigley Field, the Cubs have picked up a series win out of the break and have now won 16 of their last 22 games. Alex Bregman belted a first-inning homer to get things started and lefty Shota Imanaga spun a gem to keep Chicago atop the National League Wild Card standings.
Here are three takeaways from Sunday’s win:
1. Bregman gets offense rolling
With two outs in the first inning, Bregman jumped on a 2-2 slider from Twins starter Zebby Matthews that hung over the top of the zone. The Cubs third baseman launched a no-doubt shot to the left-field bleachers to spark an early offensive outpouring.
Bregman’s two-run blast -- his 10th of the year and third in his last five games -- started what swelled into a 10-run flurry for the North Siders over the first four innings. Carson Kelly knocked in a run in the second, Nico Hoerner’s three-run triple to center highlighted a four-run third, and Michael Busch ignited a three-run fourth with an RBI single.
Seven players in Chicago’s starting lineup registered at least one hit and eight reached base at least once during the first four innings. That included a double apiece from Seiya Suzuki (first inning) and Pete Crow-Armstrong (fourth) that set the table for the runs that followed.
“They’ve got a lethal offense over there,” Bregman said. “So even with the wind blowing in today, you’ve got to keep the pressure on. I thought the quality of at-bat up and down the lineup was good.”
2. Shota quietly on nice run
The surplus of early offense on Sunday provided Imanaga with some margin for error and the lefty used the cushion to his advantage.
Imanaga gave the Cubs seven shutout innings -- the first time since May 2 he has logged that many scoreless frames -- with a splitter-heavy approach against Minnesota’s lineup. The lefty leaned on his signature split 36% of the time, while dropping his four-seamer use to 27% (compared to 41% on the season).
“It starts with Shota today, with seven great innings,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “He was just on the attack, lots of strikes. The split-finger was excellent today. Anytime you get seven innings from your starter, you’re in good shape.”
Dating back to June 10, Imanaga now has a tidy 2.31 ERA with 35 strikeouts against nine walks in 39 innings across seven turns for the North Siders. That is already impressive, but it becomes more notable with the context that the starter had 10.80 ERA in the four outings that came right before this stretch.
3. Hoerner heating up?
The Twins have probably seen enough of Hoerner for a while.
During the three-game series against Minnesota, Hoerner went 8-for-13 in the batter’s box. The Cubs second baseman churned out two hits on Friday, another four on Saturday and capped off his big weekend with two more hits in the finale on Sunday. Chicago would love if this was a sign of more to come from Hoerner.
Hoerner was one of baseball’s hottest hitters early on this season, carrying a .300 average as late as May 5. From that point through the end of June, the second baseman hit just .202 for the Cubs. With an elite contact rate, Hoerner relies on finding holes in the defense, and there have been signs lately that he is trending back up for Chicago.