Cubs Torch Twins 10-1, Score Nine Before Minnesota Blinks

Chicago put up 10 runs on Minnesota and did most of the damage before the Twins even got on the board, turning Sunday into a rout by the fourth inning. Shota Imanaga then locked the door, throwing 7.0 innings of six-hit, zero-earned-run ball to make it all feel inevitable.

The game turned ugly for Minnesota in the very first pitch sequence that mattered. Alex Bregman homered to left — 383 feet — scoring Suzuki and pushing Chicago's win probability from 62% to 77% before the Twins had barely settled into the dugout. That two-run shot set the tone for what looked like a complete mismatch from the jump. Travis Adams kept it at 2-0 through three innings of work, but the Cubs were just getting started.

The third and fourth innings were where this game became a statement. In the third, Nico Hoerner ripped a triple to left that cleared the bases — Busch, Bregman, and Happ all scored — turning a 3-0 lead into a 6-0 advantage in one swing. Ramirez followed immediately with a single to center, plating Hoerner to make it 7-0. Chicago wasn't done. In the fourth, Busch singled to left to score Crow-Armstrong, then Bregman grounded into a fielder's choice that turned into a run when third baseman Lee committed a fielding error, scoring Suzuki. Hoerner capped the inning with another single to left, scoring Busch, and just like that it was 10-0. The story of the night was Chicago's lineup operating in waves — every time Minnesota looked like it might stabilize, another Cub came through.

Imanaga made sure the final score never got interesting. Seven innings, six hits, zero earned runs, one walk, four strikeouts — a performance that looks like a pitcher who understood his offense had already done the heavy lifting and simply refused to waste it. Minnesota's lone run came in the eighth on a Royce Lewis sacrifice fly, a cosmetic mark on an otherwise dominant Chicago afternoon. Hoerner finished 2-for-5 with 4 RBI, Busch went 3-for-5 with 2 runs scored, and Bregman contributed 2 RBI and 2 runs on his 2-for-4 day. This was a complete performance — pitching, defense, and an offense that scored in four different innings without ever needing a rally. Minnesota's pitching staff — Adams, Woo-Suk Go, and Kody Funderburk — combined to allow zero earned runs, which makes the 10-1 final appear even more lopsided when you consider how many of Chicago's runs came via errors and aggressive baserunning. The Cubs didn't just win; they made it look easy.