Game Recap: Cubs snap Red Sox's 10-game win streak behind Suzuki's blast

Kamil Krzaczynski - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese · Senior Writer · 8 hours ago

CHICAGO - The unofficial second half of the 2025 baseball season is underway as the Chicago Cubs (58-39) kicked things off with a weekend set against the hottest team in baseball, the Boston Red Sox (53-46) at Wrigley Field. Entering the game riding a 10-game winning streak, the Red Sox have gone from potential sellers to now being right in the thick of a pennant race.

Looking to kick things off in a big way and end the Red Sox massive winning streak, it was a Seiya Suzuki three-run shot that was the difference as the Cubs opened the post all-star break with a 4-1 win. Looking to build off his strong first half was the right-hander Colin Rea, and although he wasn't at his best, he did what he had to do to grab the win.

Rea walked four and struck out five across five innings, but most importantly, only allowed one run, which is all you can ask for. You couldn't have asked for a much better start for the Cubs as Rea allowed just one base runner in the first two innings while the offense came out swinging against Lucas Giolito.

After missing all of 2024 with Tommy John surgery, Giolito has had a nice bounce-back campaign as he entered his start with a 6-1 record and a sub-3.4 ERA. As good as he has been this season, it was a nightmare beginning for the right-hander as he walked Michael Busch and Kyle Tucker to start things off, which set things up for the Cubs' RBI leader in Seiya Suzuki.

Already with a career high in homers, Suzuki certainly didn't disappoint as he turned on a Giolito homer and launched it into the left field seats to put the Cubs on top 3-0. Had they not scored the rest of the way, that home run would have been enough to win this game, but with Giolito settling down after his rocky start, the Cubs felt they needed a bit more offense.

It took three innings for the Red Sox to get to Rea, and once they started to get to him, things began to get dicey in the middle innings. After recording a pair of groundouts to start things off, a Jarren Duran walk kept the inning alive, only to have an Alex Bregman single put runners on the corners. That single was followed up by a Roman Anthony double as the Red Sox pulled within 3-1.

Rea managed to escape the inning without further damage, as that was the only run he or the entire staff would allow in this game. Even at that, it didn't come easy for Rea as the Red Sox continued to keep the pressure on in the fifth as a leadoff single to Abraham Toro set the offense up. A walk to Duran followed that as the Red Sox had two on and no outs.

This was the moment when the game changed in favor of the Cubs as Bregman would fly out to Pete Crow-Armstrong for what looked to be a routine flyout, only to come up firing to double off Toro at second. It was that base-running mistake that killed the momentum the Red Sox had, as Rea walked Anthony immediately after escaping the fifth to put the ball in the bullpen's hands.

While the Red Sox let one too many scoring chances get away, the Cubs found a way to capitalize on their chances, although they didn't have many apart from the first inning. A one-out double from Ian Happ in the bottom of the sixth gave the Cubs a baserunner and set the offense up for the first time since the first inning.

Dansby Swanson followed that up with a walk as the Cubs had two runners on for their best hitter with runners in scoring position. Not only did Nico Hoerner deliver, but he delivered in a big way as he ripped one into left field, scoring Happ as the Cubs pushed their lead to 4-1. That would be all the offense the Cubs would need as Caleb Thielbar, Ryan Pressly, Drew Pomeranz, Brad Keller, and, of course, Daniel Palencia combined to keep the Red Sox off the board as the Cubs opened up the second half with a 4-1 win.

For Palencia, it has been remarkable how much things have changed for him this season as he has taken the Cubs' closer role by storm and is now 13 for 14 in saves with a 1.53 ERA. Chicago had six hits in the win, two from Suzuki, who paced the Cubs with three RBIs. Chicago will look to clinch the series tomorrow when they send Shota Imanaga to the mound against Juan Bello.