Cubs 10, Phillies 4: Cody! Cody! Cody!

Bryce Harper hit a home run in the first inning against Justin Steele on Tuesday, his 30th, and… well, the Phillies didn’t do much after that. The Cubs offense, on the other hand, hit 15 hits and walked four to steamroll the Phils 10-4.

Tanner Banks, normally a reliever, started this game as the opener for Philadelphia and shut down the Cubs in the first inning with just 10 scoreless pitches.

Maybe the Phillies should have been happy with that, because the Cubs hit Banks in the second inning. With one out, Michael Busch was hit by a pitch. Nico Hoerner followed with a single, and Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a beautiful bunt past all the infielders in right for a hit that loaded the bases.

Taijuan Walker replaced Banks and was unable to throw any strikes.

He let Miguel Amaya run and equalized the game at 1:1 (VIDEO).

Then he let Ian Happ walk and the Cubs led 2-1 (VIDEO).

Finally, Walker managed to get a Cub into the game. Dansby Swanson was grounded out, but another run was scored and the game was 3-1 (VIDEO).

That put runners on second and third base. Seiya Suzuki singled for both (VIDEO).

Suzuki singled to second and Cody Bellinger’s RBI single finished second with a six-run Cubs leadoff hit (VIDEO).

As it turns out, that would have been enough runs for the Cubs to win, but there’s more to come! And here’s this six-run inning, from BCB’s JohnW53:

The Cubs’ six-run second inning was their fourth six-run inning this season. The first was a 12-11 loss in 10 innings at Arizona on April 16. The other two were 18-9 and 14-9 wins at Pittsburgh on August 26 and 28. The Cubs had 3 innings of 7 runs and 1 inning of 8.

By the way, Walker, who had a decent year (2.5 bWAR) with the Phillies in 2023, had an absolutely terrible year in 2024: 7.10 ERA in 83⅔ innings with 24 (!) home runs allowed, and the Phillies have to pay Walker $18 million for both games in 2025. And 2026. Oops.

The Phillies got one more run against Steele in the second inning to make it 6-2, but after that Steele settled down and finished his final start of 2024 with a four-inning, two-run, three-strikeout performance that included 62 pitches (50 strikes). He had a good year despite missing several starts due to injury, finishing with 2.1 bWAR. Here’s to a healthy 2025 for Steele.

The Cubs showed some catching gloves in the fifth inning – check out this nice running catch by Hoerner (VIDEO).

The Cubs again put a wrong number on the board in the sixth inning. Amaya led off with a single and one out later Swanson brought him to third base with a double. A walk for Suzuki filled the bases.

Bellinger then unloaded with this triple (VIDEO).

That made it 9-2. More on Bellinger’s triple with the bases full from BCB’s JohnW53:

Cody Bellinger’s bases-loaded triple in the sixth inning was the first of its kind for the Cubs since Nico Hoerner did it at home against the Padres on April 25 of last year. The Cubs’ previous two three-run triples also came at home, by PJ Higgins in 2022 and Kyle Schwarber in 2019. Their last away triple came by Jason Heyward on May 19, 2018 in Cincinnati. Their last in Philadelphia came by Ryne Sandberg on June 11, 1996.

Isaac Paredes then scored a groundout for Bellinger, increasing the lead to 10-2 (VIDEO).

The Phillies hit two home runs against Hayden Wesneski in the eighth inning, a two-run home run off Kyle Schwarber. That was one of Wesneski’s biggest problems this year. That’s 12 home runs allowed in just 65⅔ innings. He’ll have to get that under control to be a useful member of the Cubs team in 2025.

The newest Cub, Enoli Paredes, threw a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the game. Here’s the final out (VIDEO).

Here are Craig Counsell’s post-game comments (VIDEO).

Back to the HBP on Busch, here it is (VIDEO).

Here is the result of this HBP:

My guess is Busch won’t be in the starting lineup tonight, and the team is hoping the extra day off will allow him to return to action Friday at Wrigley Field.

Another minor injury – Suzuki was replaced by pinch hitter Patrick Wisdom in the sixth inning, and here’s why:

Again, I hope it is nothing serious and he can return by Friday.

The Cubs have a chance to win this series and tie the season series with the Phillies with a win tonight. Javier Assad will start for the Cubs and Cristopher Sánchez will start for the Phillies. Note! Game time is a little earlier tonight at 5:05 p.m. CT. TV coverage will be on the Marquee Sports Network as usual. The BCB game preview will be posted at 3:05 p.m. CT.