The Chicago Cubs powered past the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday with a 12-1 victory, marking the sixth time in 11 meetings this season that they have scored at least seven runs against their division rivals.
St. Louis starter Miles Mikolas continued to struggle against Chicago’s lineup. He gave up four runs and three home runs, surrendering long balls to Michael Busch, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Nico Hoerner. Earlier this season, Mikolas allowed six home runs to the Cubs in a July 4 matchup, and history repeated itself with another barrage.
The biggest swing of the night, however, came in the seventh inning off reliever Chris Roycroft. Seiya Suzuki launched his 30th home run of the year, joining Crow-Armstrong, who also reached the 30-homer milestone in the game. Their blasts made history, as this marks only the second season in franchise history in which the Cubs have had at least three players with 30 or more home runs.
The only other occurrence came in 2004, when Moises Alou, Aramis Ramirez, Sammy Sosa and Derrek Lee all cleared the mark, each finishing with at least 32. Busch, who leads the Cubs with 32 homers, completes this year’s trio.
Chicago’s lineup depth extends beyond those three, with Dansby Swanson, Ian Happ and Kyle Tucker all surpassing 20 home runs this season. That power production has propelled the Cubs to sixth in MLB in team home runs.
Although they have not yet locked in the No. 4 seed, Chicago needs just one win or a San Diego Padres loss in their final two games to secure home-field advantage in the National League wild-card round.