Chicago Cubs Score and Recap (8/6/24): Cubs 7, Twins 3 – Paredes’ Big Night Leads to Win
The Cubs were able to even their series with the Twins Tuesday night with a much better offensive performance and a quality start from Shōta Imanaga. New addition Isaac Paredes was the hitting star with four RBIs and his first home run in a Chicago uniform in a 7-3 victory.
Paredes got the scoring started in the opening inning against Minnesota starter Pablo López when he hit a three-run homer into the left field basket. The Cubs third baseman picked up another RBI when he floated a bloop single to right field in the 3rd inning. Michael Busch got a tremendous two-out jump on the play, allowing him to score from first base.
🕺 IT’S A PAREDES IN THE WINDY CITY YEAH 🕺 pic.twitter.com/p4TNVCBSGk
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 7, 2024
Imanaga was very sharp and retired the first 10 batters he faced on Tuesday. After finally walking a better he gave up his first hit, a two-run homer off the bat of Royce Lewis that cut the North Siders’ lead in half in the 4th inning.
Randy Dobnak relieved López in the 6th inning and the Cubs rallied for two more runs. Dansby Swanson tripled home a run and then scored on a wild pitch by Dobnak. Imanaga would eventually pitch seven strong frames and leave with his team ahead 6-2.
The Twins got one of those tallies back when catcher Christian Vázquez hit a solo home run off of Drew Smyly in the top of the 8th. Pete Crow-Armstrong singled home a run in the bottom of the inning and Chicago closed out the win without much drama. (Box score)
Key Moment
Paredes came up in the 1st inning after back-to-back two-out singles and absolutely crushed a ball that left the yard traveling into the wind blowing in at 20 miles an hour. The homer gave a huge boost to the entire team after a bad hitting performance on Monday.
Why the Cubs Won
The pitching staff matched their performance from the previous game but this time the offense provided plenty of support to earn the win.
Stats That Matter
- Imanaga had one of his best performances of the season: 7 IP, 2 R, 3 H, 10 K, and 1 BB.
- Swanson had a three-hit game and hopefully is starting to get hot.
- Nico Hoerner picked up two more singles and stole a pair of bases.
Bottom Line
It was nice to see Paredes contribute after a slow start to his Cubs career. Getting more of this type of production from him would certainly help down the stretch. Chicago has been doing a better job recovering from bad games recently and the lineup while still inconsistent is producing more often. Hopefully, they can start increasing the consistency and start winning more series.
On Deck
The rubber match of the series is Wednesday afternoon at 1:20pm CT. Javier Assad faces Joe Ryan in a contest airing on MLB Network (out of market only), Marquee, and 670 The Score.