Seiya Suzuki of the Chicago Cubs watches his single during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies on July 4 in Chicago.
10:27 JST, July 5, 2024
CHICAGO (AP) — Ian Happ hit three-run homers to both sides of the plate for a career-high six RBIs, and the struggling Chicago Cubs beat the major league-leading Philadelphia Phillies 10-2 to avoid a three-game sweep on Thursday.
The Cubs entered the season expecting to compete for the NL Central championship. Instead, they’re last in the division. But they gave the Wrigley Field crowd of 40,143 plenty to cheer about on the Fourth of July.
“We know how much this fan base expects and how much they deserve,” Happ said. “They show up every day, no matter what. They deserve a really good baseball team and I think all of us on this team believe we have that in the tank. It’s been a tough stretch. But when you have a game like today where you score 10 runs and you feel really good about it, let’s see if we can keep that going.”
Chicago trailed 2-0 when Happ hit a strike from the right side against starter Cristopher Sánchez in the fifth inning. Happ again went left-handed in the fifth inning against Seranthony Domínguez to make it 8-2 and give him 14 career multi-homer games.
It was the second time Happ had gone deep from both sides of the plate, and he also singled and doubled to finish 4 for 4.
Happ started off slow this season. But after 35 games since May 26, he is second in the majors with 36 RBIs.
You’re going to have times where things don’t feel right, he said. “When the wind blows, you either throw things right into the wind or you lash out. Part of that is believing that you’re going to hit one of those hot streaks and get back on track. For me personally, that was early in the year. The first six weeks were a struggle and really hard and challenging, and believing that I was going to get to that place where I was going to get the ship back on course.”
Jameson Taillon (5-4) threw seven innings, allowing two runs and four hits. The right-handed pitcher struck out seven and walked none.
Seiya Suzuki scored three times and the Cubs won comfortably after losing eight of 10 games. They also ended a seven-game losing streak against the Phillies that dated back to last season.
Philadelphia’s Brandon Marsh drove in a run in the first inning. Nick Castellanos made it 2-0 in the fourth with a rocket to left-center for his 12th homer, but Sanchez (6-4) just couldn’t get it together after shutting out Miami last week and throwing his first career complete game.
The left-handed pitcher allowed seven runs and seven hits after going 3-0 with an 0.39 ERA in his previous three starts. He was out with nobody out in the fifth after Cody Bellinger and Suzuki singled.
Happ broke the game open when he greeted Domínguez with a drive to right field for his 13th home run, becoming the first Cubs player to score from both sides since Victor Caratini in a loss at Pittsburgh on July 3, 2019.
Ian had some huge swings, manager Craig Counsell said. “We got guys on base for him for those swings. Two three-run homers definitely put a smile on everybody’s face.”
