Busch became the first Cub with a 30-home run season since 2019, when Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber both surpassed the mark. Anthony Rizzo was the last Cubs first baseman to reach it when he slugged 32 in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool just to be able to do it,\u201d Busch said. \u201cAny individual accomplishment is cool, but at the end of the day, it helps the team. And I think that\u2019s kind of what we\u2019re here to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
In franchise history, Busch is only the fifth first baseman \u2014 at least 51% of games played at the position \u2014 to hit 30-plus home runs in a season. He joins Rizzo (four times), Derrek Lee (three), Ernie Banks (two) and Fred McGriff (one).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a testament to him just getting better,\u201d manager Craig Counsell said. \u201cHe\u2019s gotten better this year, his second full season in the league, and just getting better. And that\u2019s an exciting development for the Cubs, and he continues to have a wonderful season.\u201d<\/p>\n
The loss, coupled with the San Diego Padres\u2019 7-3 win over the Chicago White Sox, kept the Cubs magic number to clinch the top National League wild-card spot at four.<\/p>\n
Cubs option reliever Porter Hodge<\/p>\n
Hodge\u2019s season isn\u2019t ending as they reliever would have liked.<\/p>\n
The Cubs optioned Hodge to Triple A before Saturday\u2019s game after he allowed two homers and three runs that were the difference in Friday\u2019s loss<\/a>. Left-hander Jordan Wicks was recalled from Iowa. Although he was optioned to Triple A, Hodge will head to the team\u2019s complex in Mesa, Ariz., to stay ready if he\u2019s needed in the postseason with Iowa\u2019s season ending Sunday.<\/p>\n Despite the numbers, Counsell believes there aren\u2019t many things that are drastically different from the 2024 (1.88 ERA in 43 innings) and 2025 (6.27 in 33 innings) versions of Hodge. There are subtle things that have yielded some drastically different results. Most notably, fewer fastballs in the zone and a lack of command with his slider for a stretch, though there were stretches those issues were minimal.<\/p>\n Ultimately,\u00a0Hodge, 24, was operating on the edge of a dangerous walk rate last year (11.6%) that went up (12.2%) while his home run rate dramatically spiked by 5%.<\/p>\n \u201cThose two things, it\u2019s going to produce runs for the other team so anytime he\u2019s right on the edge with the strike throwing, it\u2019s about kind of controlling counts, and he\u2019s also going to strike people out, that\u2019s a really good trait that he has,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re right on the edge, when you\u2019re flirting with that high walk kind of method of pitching it\u2019s just about executing more pitches per appearance, more competitive with pitches per appearance to just keep counts in your favor.\u201d<\/p>\n Reese McGuire delivers The addition of McGuire turned into a under-the-radar important move for the Cubs.<\/p>\n McGuire has thrived since taking over the backup catcher role when Miguel Amaya suffered an oblique strain<\/a> and then a sprained left ankle<\/a> in his first game back from the 60-day injured list last month. McGuire hit his ninth home run of the season Saturday to tie the game in the fifth and came through with an RBI double in the eighth to pull the Cubs within a run.<\/p>\n McGuire\u2019s home run total in 41 games and 134 plate appearances comes after combining to hit nine home runs in his previous five seasons spanning 311 games and 900 PAs.<\/p>\n \u201cReese has done such a nice job,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cHe hasn\u2019t played for two days, still providing a really nice offensive presence in the lineup with very irregular at-bats. That\u2019s so hard to do, and he\u2019s done it exceptionally well. So Reese is a big part of why we\u2019ve been able to get here and he\u2019s had his best big-league season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014 Michael Busch\u2019s encore to a solid rookie season has seen the Chicago Cubs first baseman evolve…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":243036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[50270,960,1271,5048,1816,114617,50272,129662,5386,1818,129663,67374,8321,5605,5606,85485,5441,8754],"class_list":{"0":"post-243035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-anthony-rizzo","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-cincinnati-reds","12":"tag-craig-counsell","13":"tag-derrek-lee","14":"tag-ernie-banks","15":"tag-fred-mcgreff","16":"tag-il","17":"tag-illinois","18":"tag-jordan-wicks","19":"tag-kris-bryant","20":"tag-kyle-schwarber","21":"tag-kyle-tucker","22":"tag-michael-busch","23":"tag-miguel-amaya","24":"tag-porter-hodge","25":"tag-reese-mcguire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115240305062212302","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243035","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=243035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Cubs](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CTC-Z-CUBS-REDS_a8a932.jpg\")
Cubs reliever Drew Pomeranz, left, talks with catcher Reese McGuire in the fifth inning against the Reds on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. (Jeff Dean\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n