The Cubs waited out a rain delay and then unleashed a storm of runs.
Matthew Boyd was named a 2025 All-Star and went out Sunday evening and showed why, shutting down the Cardinals for five innings.
Meanwhile, his teammates put together a 13-hit attack, including a home run from All-Star snub (at least for now) Seiya Suzuki, and shut out the rival Cardinals 11-0, taking the series and completing a highly successful 5-1 homestand.
The game was moved from 1:20 p.m. to an unusual 5:10 p.m starting time by ESPN. Rain had other ideas, and the start wound up being at exactly ESPN’s usual Sunday night starting time, 6:10 p.m. (Incidentally, it started raining at Wrigley around 4:15, meaning that a 1:20 game would likely have been played with no rain at all.)
The Cubs began their storm of runs in the first inning after the Cardinals extended Boyd to 25 pitches in the top of the inning. With one out, Kyle Tucker walked and stole second [VIDEO].
One out later, Pete Crow-Armstrong singled him in [VIDEO].
Boyd had a quicker second, in spite of a Cardinals double, and then the Cubs put more runs on the board int he bottom of the inning. Nico Hoerner led off with a double and took third on a wild pitch. One out later, Matt Shaw and Ian Happ walked to load the bases.
Tucker singled in two runs [VIDEO].
Happ took third on the hit and was thrown out at the plate on a grounder by Suzuki [VIDEO].
In the top of the third, Willson Contreras hit a ball that PCA ran down near the ivy [VIDEO].
After the rain, the wind had shifted and was blowing in strongly. That ball would have been well into the bleachers on many days.
The Cubs blew the game open in the third. Michael Busch led off with a single and Dansby Swanson walked. Nico singled to load the bases.
Reese McGuire’s single made it 4-0 [VIDEO].
The bases remained loaded for Matt Shaw, who hit a ground ball to third [VIDEO].
Now it’s 5-0 and the bases are still loaded. Happ’s grounder to first made it 6-0 [VIDEO].
Happ was ruled out of the baseline. Craig Counsell came out to argue, but the video clip shows that pretty clearly.
McGuire took third and Shaw second on that out, and Tucker hit a sac fly to make it 7-0 [VIDEO].
Shaw took third on that out and scored easily on Suzuki’s double [VIDEO].
After a scoreless top of the fourth from Boyd, the Cubs tacked on two more in the bottom fo the inning. Swanson singled with one out and Hoerner’s triple made it 9-0 [VIDEO].
Nico scored on this ground ball by McGuire [VIDEO].
Boyd threw a 1-2-3 fifth. After throwing a lot of pitches early, Boyd retired the last nine Cardinals he faced and was lifted after five innings and 87 pitches. Had the game been closer, Boyd might have thrown one more inning, but with a 10-0 lead going to the bottom of the fifth, Counsell figured that was good enough.
That lead became 11-0 on this monster blast by Suzuki [VIDEO].
Look how far that went into the strong wind! [VIDEO]
The relatively low launch angle (27 degrees) helped that ball leave the yard. Much higher than that, it probably gets blown back. For Suzuki, his 25th home run establishes a new career high… and 72 games remain this season. He’s now on pace for 45 home runs.
That was it for Cubs scoring, as they had just two baserunners from the sixth through eighth, not that it really mattered with an 11-0 lead. Jordan Wicks, recalled Friday, threw from the sixth through one out in the ninth, 41 pitches (30 strikes) while allowing three hits. That was a nice return to the big leagues for Wicks and now, for a time at least, the Cubs have another guy who can throw multiple relief innings.
Daniel Palencia was summoned, and if you wondered why, he hadn’t pitched since Wednesday and likely needed the work. He retired the last two Cardinals on just five pitches. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].
As for Boyd, he struck out a season-high nine in five innings [VIDEO].
Here’s more on Boyd’s outing [VIDEO].
And here’s Boyd on his All-Star selection [VIDEO].
Here are Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
This blowout win produced quite a few facts from BCB’s JohnW53:
By winning, 11-0, the Cubs evened the all-time runs scored in their 134-season rivalry with the Cardinals. Each has scored 11,013 runs, an average of 4.37 in their 2,520 games.The Cubs lead in wins, 1,277 to 1,224. They played 19 ties
The Cubs had not had a double-digit shutout of the Cardinals since a 10-0 win at St. Louis on Sept. 7, 1981. This was their 712th game against them since then.
Their previous such shutout at home also was by 10-0, on Sept. 23, 1940.They had one earlier 11-0 win over the Cards, at home on Sept. 10, 1937.
They won by 12-0 at home in 1902 and at St. Louis in 1971.
Their only larger shutout of the Cards was by 14-0 on June 25, 1918. In that one, they scored a single run in the first inning, seven in the fourth, five in the sixth and one in the seventh.
Max Flack and Les Mann each had four of the Cubs’ 12 hits. Mann singled, doubled and tripled. Flack hit a grand slam. Lefty Tyler gave up a double and two singles, walked none and struck out five.
More from John on shutting out the team’s arch-rivals:
The Cubs have shut out the Cardinals in three of the seven games they have played against them this year.
They have blanked the Cards at least three times in only 18 seasons since 1901, most recently three each in 2013 and 2016. They also had a trio of shutouts in 10 other seasons.
They held the Cards scoreless in four games in 1972, the only time they have done it more than three times since 1919, when they also had four. They had four as well as in 1912, five in 1908 and six in 1907 and 1918.
And one more from John on all the runs scored:
The last time the Cubs had scored double-digit runs against the Cardinals twice in three or fewer games was Sept. 21-22, 1993, when the Cubs won back-to-back games at Wrigley Field, 13-3 and 11-9. Last night’s game was their 498th vs. the Cards since then. It was only the 20th in which the Cubs reached double digits.
It was the 16th time the Cubs had scored in double figures this year. That’s the most for any MLB team in 2025. Last year they did this 12 times for the entire season. More on that:
This is the Cubs’ 16th game with 10+ runs, their most thru 90 games since 1929 (20)
Before that, last time with that many 10-run performances thru 90 for them? 1898!
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) July 7, 2025
They have scored 492 runs for the season, just eight behind the MLB-leading Dodgers, and if they can keep up the 5.47 runs per game pace, that would be 886 runs, the team’s most since 1930.
The Cubs maintained their four-game lead over the Brewers in the NL Central, as Milwaukee also won Sunday. They lead the Cardinals by 6½ games and the Reds by eight. At 54-36, the Cubs are playing .600 ball, equivalent to a 97-win season. Since their 98-win season in 1945, the Cubs have won 97 or more games just three times — 2008 (97), 2015 (97) and, of course, 2016 (103).
And that all leads to this:
Final note on this game: ESPN doesn’t cover seventh-inning stretch singers at Wrigley, so unless you were at the game you didn’t hear this, but Sunday night’s was an absolute embarrassment. More from Awful Announcing.
The Cubs will enjoy their off day Monday and then travel to Minneapolis, where they’ll face the Twins in a three-game series beginning Tuesday evening. Shōta Imanaga will start for the Cubs and Simeon Woods Richardson gets the call for Minnesota. Game time Tuesday is 6:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.