Cubs score 3 runs in 8th, top Giants 5-2
Chicago Cubs' Cody Bellinger, right, celebrates with Dansby Swanson after the Cubs defeated the San Francisco Giants in a baseball game in Chicago, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Credit: AP/Nam Y. Huh
CHICAGO — Cody Bellinger, Ian Happ and Christopher Morel each had RBI singles in Chicago's three-run eighth inning and the Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants 5-2 on Tuesday night to end a two-game slide.
Michael Busch led off the eighth against reliever Tyler Rogers (0-2) with a double off the right-center wall, his second hit of the game. Bellinger followed by bouncing a his second hit barely through the left side of the infield to break a 2-all tie.
After Seiya Suzuki singled, Happ lined his second hit of the night down the right field line to make it 4-2. Morel pinch hit and added a ground-ball RBI single to cap the rally.
Dansby Swanson hit a two-run homer for the Cubs, who won for just fourth time in 12 games.
Tyson Miller (2-0) got four outs in relief of Justin Steele for the win. Keegan Thompson struck out the side in the ninth for his first save.
Curt Casali had two hits and two RBIs for the Giants, who announced the death of Hall of Famer Willie Mays during the game. The legendary outfielder played 22 seasons with the team, first in New York and then when the franchise moved to San Francisco.
The Wrigley Field crowd of 36,292 stood in a salute to Mays when the death of the 93-year-old was announced in the left field video board in the sixth inning
Chicago Cubs' Cody Bellinger, left, scores next to San Francisco Giants catcher Curt Casali during the eighth inning of a baseball game in Chicago, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Credit: AP/Nam Y. Huh
Giants starter Logan Webb allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings. The right-hander struck out five and walked one while throwing 101 pitches before he was relieved by Rogers.
Steele was sharp in his 10th start of the season, allowing two runs and four hits 6 2/3 innings. The left-hander struck out eight and walked two in a fourth straight solid outing, but left with the score tied at 2 and after 96 pitches on a warm evening and failed to earn his first win.
Swanson put Chicago ahead 2-0 in the second with an opposite-field homer that just reached the right-center bleachers. it was his seventh of the season.
Steele sailed through four innings, retiring 12 of 14 hitters and allowing only two singles.
Chicago Cubs' Michael Busch, left, scores as San Francisco Giants catcher Curt Casali waits for the ball during the eighth inning of a baseball game in Chicago, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Credit: AP/Nam Y. Huh
The Giants tied it 2-all in the fifth when Steele walked Jorge Soler and Mike Yastrzemski, then Casali drove in both runners with a double to the left-center gap.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Giants: LHP Blake Snell, on the 15-day IL since June 3 (left groin strain), threw a bullpen session in San Francisco on Tuesday. “We’ll see how he comes in tomorrow and make a determination after that,” manager Bob Melvin said. Snell, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, is 0-3 with a 9.51 ERA in six starts with San Francisco since signing a two-year, $62 million contract in March.
Cubs: OF Mike Tauchman was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left groin strain before Tuesday’s game and INF Miles Mastrobuoni was called up from Triple-A Iowa to take Tauchman’s place on the roster. Tauchman left the Cubs’ 7-6 loss to the Giants on Monday after legging out a single in the third inning. On Tuesday, manager Craig Counsell said Tauchman would “probably need four weeks to heal.”
UP NEXT
RHP Kyle Hendricks (0-4, 8.20) will start for the Cubs in the series finale on Wednesday afternoon. The Giants had not named a starter.