{"id":23773,"date":"2025-06-29T06:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T06:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/23773\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T06:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T06:05:06","slug":"chicago-cubs-slugger-has-big-night-vs-old-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/23773\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs slugger has big night vs. old team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HOUSTON \u2014 Kyle Tucker earned his crown Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>One night after Houston Astros fans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2025\/06\/27\/chicago-cubs-kyle-tucker-ryan-pressly-houston-astros\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">welcomed \u201cKing Tuck\u201d back to Daikin Park<\/a>, the Chicago Cubs slugger delivered a big blow with a three-run home run into the right-field seats in a game-changing, seven-run fourth inning. Tucker tied his career high in the Cubs\u2019 12-3 win with four hits, including a double, as part of an all-around stellar performance by the offense.<\/p>\n<p>Back in Houston for the first time since the offseason trade, Tucker was treated to cheers throughout Friday\u2019s game and the first few innings Saturday. Those quickly turned to boos after the ball Tucker hit off former teammate Lance McCullers Jr. cleared the right-field wall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a good thing. That means we\u2019re doing our job over here,\u201d a smiling Tucker said of the jeers. \u201cWe\u2019re going to try and do it again tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michael Busch and Nico Hoerner hit back-to-back homers to open the fourth, quickly erasing a one-run deficit. The Cubs (49-34) kept the inning rolling with Ian Happ\u2019s RBI single that preceded Tucker\u2019s 17th home run of the year. Pete Crow-Armstrong capped the scoring in the fourth with a sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n<p>One of the best run-producing offenses in the majors has had a knack for big innings this season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a group that doesn\u2019t really get super high or low, and it\u2019s not the most exciting answer, but I do think it gives you the chance to always roll out your best at-bats,\u201d Hoerner said. \u201cAnd that looks different for each of us, but when everyone\u2019s embracing their own strengths and just rolling it out there over and over and over, you get the opportunity for those big innings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd once you get a lead, I think we all feed off each other\u2019s confidence and (it\u2019s) nice to have a little momentum like that. It was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Cubs tacked on in the sixth with Dansby Swanson\u2019s RBI single and in the eighth when Seiya Suzuki hit his team-leading 22nd homer, followed two batters later by Busch\u2019s run-scoring single.<\/p>\n<p>Right-hander Colin Rea limited the Astros to two runs \u2014 courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2025\/06\/27\/chicago-cubs-houston-astros-cam-smith-cade-horton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">former Cubs prospect Cam Smith\u2019s<\/a> second homer in as many days in the third \u2014 over five innings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cColin came out and put zeros up, and that kind of squashes the game, too, from a momentum standpoint, as much as anything,\u201d manager Craig Counsell said. \u201cWhen he puts up a zero in the fourth, that is a big inning. So we did a nice job, had our big offensive inning and did a great job with the bullpen and Colin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Originally Published: June 28, 2025 at 10:56 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 Kyle Tucker earned his crown Saturday. One night after Houston Astros fans welcomed \u201cKing Tuck\u201d back&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,1271,5440,2382,5386,1818,5605],"class_list":{"0":"post-23773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-chicago-cubs","10":"tag-colin-rea","11":"tag-houston-astros","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-illinois","14":"tag-kyle-tucker"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114765150536840171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}