Michael Busch Gets Sweet Revenge Against Dodgers
There’s nothing better for Cubs fans than starting off your weekend early by getting a win on Friday afternoon. As much as we loved it, Michael Busch probably enjoyed Friday’s 9-7 victory a lot more against his former team in the Los Angeles Dodgers. Busch not only hit his first home run of the season, the first baseman also ended the game by making a diving catch in the ninth inning that prevented the Dodgers from scoring the tying runs with two outs.
Busch, 26, was a first round draft pick by the Dodgers in 2019, but the left-handed hitter never got much time with the big league club in the majors. In 2023, Busch was called up and sent down to Triple-A multiple times throughout the season, which ended with the infielder totaling 81 plate appearances. The Cubs traded one of their impressive pitching prospects in Jackson Ferris as the headliner for Busch during this past offseason and the team has given Busch the keys to first base.
So far, so good.
Busch also walked and scored a run in the second inning, when the Cubs offense jumped all over right-handed starter Bobby Miller.
But it was Busch’s defense that came up with the biggest highlight on Friday, as he robbed James Outman of a game-tying, two-run single in the ninth. Busch dove to his right and snagged Outman’s line drive before it got to the outfield, securing the Cubs’ fifth win in a row that also snapped the Dodgers’ five-game winning streak.
Cubs Offense is on Fire
Bobby Miller struck out the side in the first inning and by the looks of it you would have thought the Cubs were going to have a long day against the Dodgers’ young pitcher. However, Dansby Swanson quickly turned things around with a home run in the second.
Michael Busch followed up with a walk and then back-to-back singles by Nico Hoerner and Nick Madrigal tied things up. Ian Happ kept the pressure on Miller by taking a walk with two outs that loaded the bases for Seiya Suzuki.
One run had already scored on a wild pitch and then Suzuki drove in the other two with a double to right-center.
Those two at-bats by Happ and Suzuki are a perfect example of why this Cubs’ offense has been great early on in the season. Get on base and then drive the ball with authority. Happ later tripled in the sixth inning, driving in a pair of runs and then scored on a Suzuki sac-fly that gave the Cubs a 9-5 lead heading into the seventh.
We knew the Dodgers were going to score plenty of runs, but on a day when Cody Bellinger and Christopher Morel combined to go 0-for-7 with a walk, the Cubs still chased Miller after 1.2 innings pitched and scored 9 runs to beat Los Angeles.
The Cubs are now 5-2 after the first week of games and most of that success has been because of their red-hot offense.
Yeah, that’ll do.