Chicago Cubs Score and Recap (8/11/26): Cubs 8, Nationals 6 – Webb Closes Slugfest
The Cubs and Nationals began their series Tuesday night in a slugfest that saw 14 total runs and six homers. The road squad came out ahead when all was said and done, hanging on for a narrow victory.
Washington grabbed an early lead against Shōta Imanaga when CJ Abrams hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 1st. Chicago got one of them back when Nico Hoerner had a sacrifice fly off of Jake Irvin in the 2nd.
Jacob Young launched a solo shot in the bottom of the frame, but Pete Crow-Armstrong matched him with an absolute blast that cut the deficit to 3-2 in the top of the 3rd. The North Siders manufactured three runs in the 4th inning to move in front 5-3. Michael Conforto had a sac fly, Hoerner beat a throw to the plate on a grounder by Carson Kelly, and Seiya Suzuki capped it off with an RBI double.
Dansby Swanson drew a bases-loaded walk off of reliever Max Kranick to increase the Cubs’ advantage to 6-3 in the top of the 5th. Imanaga came out in the bottom of the frame after allowing a solo homer to Dylan Crews that brought the Nats within 6-4.
Chicago built the margin back up to 8-4 with solo homers by Alex Bregman in the 6th and Suzuki in the 8th. Washington would not go away, however, scoring two runs against Ryan Zeferjahn on RBI singles from Jorbit Vivas and Nasim Nunez in the bottom of the inning.
Manager Craig Counsell tapped closer Jacob Webb to get the final four outs of the game, and he did just that to preserve the 8-6 win for the North Siders. (Box score)
Key Moment
Suzuki made a great running catch in right-center to rob Daylen Lile of a two-run double in the bottom of the 8th. The Nats did eventually score one of those runners before the inning ended, but preventing the other from coming across maintained a little more insurance.
Why the Cubs Won
Plenty of offense and a big effort from the closer to finish it off when things got a little uncomfortable in the late innings.
Stats That Matter
- Imanaga really had to battle a tough Washington lineup: 4.2 IP, 4 R, 6 H, 5 K, and 0 BB.
- Hoerner got on base three times in addition to the sacrifice fly.
- Suzuki picked up two extra-base hits and played great defense.
- Ian Happ had two walks and a single.
Bottom Line
The Cubs won game number 70 and are now 20 games over the .500 mark, which is an impressive accomplishment for any team. They obviously want and expect to go further this season, but it’s pretty amazing they are where they are given the laundry list of pitching injuries they had to deal with the first three months
On Deck
The second game of the series is Wednesday night at 5:45pm CT. David Peterson goes for Chicago against Jackson Kent, who is making his MLB debut in a contest televised on Marquee with a radio feed on The Score.
