Giants' 18-3 – A dramatic Cubs walk-off win Thursday quickly unraveled Friday night when the Giants pounded Chicago 18-3, hitting seven home runs en route to a score that undercut optimism about a turnaround. The result landed with extra weight for Cubs leadership as the Aug
Baseball can change your mood in a single night. One day after the Cubs needed extra innings of belief—a dramatic ninth-inning comeback capped by a walk-off hit—the Giants showed how fragile momentum can be.
Friday, it wasn’t the Cubs’ rally that grabbed the spotlight. It was an onslaught: the Giants beat the Cubs 18-3. a margin that extinguished any lingering talk of a fresh start after Thursday’s win. The Giants scored early and kept coming, hitting seven home runs in the process. The 18 runs also marked the most runs the Cubs have yielded this season.
Jed Hoyer, the Cubs’ president of baseball operations, had been watching Thursday’s comeback from the clubhouse weight room. After that walk-off victory. he acknowledged that everyone hopes it becomes a catalyst. saying. “I think everyone hopes that game is a catalyst. ” and that they would find out later. Less than a day later. the follow-up was brutal enough that any question about whether momentum had taken hold became irrelevant.
The timing adds urgency because the trade deadline, Aug. 3, is now less than two months away. Hoyer said before Friday’s game that the deadline was “the furthest thing” from his mind “given the way we’ve played. ” and he suggested it was too early to talk about the market seriously. He also laid out a view of the Cubs’ roster direction: their position-player group is deep and set. and the “backbone of this team is our position players. ” which he said has to play well.
But the pitching problems—already on full display—can’t be talked away. Edward Cabrera’s performance after returning from the injured list “merely reinforces” that the Cubs “won’t be making a deep October run unless the pitching improves,” especially in the rotation.
Cabrera’s struggles sit alongside the Cubs’ continuing health and availability questions. Matthew Boyd. an All-Star last season. is in the middle of another step back after two separate stints on the injured list—first for biceps tendinitis. then for meniscus surgery on his left knee. Boyd is making a second rehab start Saturday in Triple-A Iowa and is expected to rejoin the rotation in time for his next start.
Still, the Cubs’ path is complicated. Cade Horton is out for the year. and Justin Steele’s return is still a “huge question mark.” Hoyer said that at the deadline the club would be looking for pitching. but also insisted that focusing on the market is the wrong conversation if the team isn’t playing better now. “I think we just have to play better — like, that’s the priority,” he said. He also reiterated that the position players won’t be the piece likely to change at the deadline: “That’s not going to change at the deadline.”.
The whiplash between Thursday and Friday is stark. and it can be traced to what went right in the ninth inning last time—and how quickly it can disappear. Thursday’s walk-off was the first walk-off hit of Pete Crow-Armstrong’s career. His game-winning bloop single landed just in front of Athletics right fielder Lawrence Butler and scored Seiya Suzuki with the tiebreaking run in a four-run ninth.
The rally mattered beyond the score. It featured seven hits, starting with Michael Busch’s leadoff double. Alex Bregman flied out. but the Cubs answered anyway. stringing together six straight hits—the first time since April 18. 2025 that they had done that. Even after Nico Hoerner singled. he was caught stealing. and still four of the hits came with two outs while the Cubs were trailing 6-4.
That kind of late offense is rare for this club. The Elias Sports Bureau says it was the first time in at least 75 years the Cubs ended a game with six consecutive hits. And the run-up to it carried its own tension: the Cubs have been “horrific with runners in scoring position.” In a stretch in which they won only five of 23 games after May 8. they batted .165 (35-for-212) with runners in scoring position. Thursday’s 6-for-10 showing marked the fifth time this season they had as many as six hits with runners in scoring position.
Manager Craig Counsell described the feeling from the dugout after the rally. When players are struggling and not getting the results they want. he said coaches and teammates can offer support. “But the game needs to give you some support. right?” In his view. that’s what happened during the ninth inning: “And so that’s what happened for some guys last night. Like, the game needs to do it, right?. And you need to create it. and it’s you that did it. and that’s probably the best start about it.”.
Counsell also talked about how move-the-line-inning rallies build energy. “It was a move-the-line-inning. and I think those innings build energy in the stadium. build energy in the dugout. and they’re fun because a lot of people are involved in it. ” he said. He added that the home run is always enjoyable. but those sequences are “the most fun kind of innings. ” and last night delivered that kind of momentum.
Crow-Armstrong’s offensive bounce had been building already. In his last 13 games entering Friday, he posted a slash line of .320/.426/.620 with four home runs and 10 RBI. Thursday’s walk-off felt like it fit that pattern—until Friday’s blowout made the story swing back.
After Crow-Armstrong left the field, the Cubs’ night didn’t correct itself. They fell again, losing 18-3 to the Giants, with seven home runs in the game serving as the clearest measure of how far Chicago’s Thursday spark was from carrying over.
The Cubs’ next step now comes with a quick turnaround. The article notes the team is aiming for a 2:20 p.m. first pitch. and it also reflects the way Thursday’s heroics and defense intersected—Crow-Armstrong responded to a rare defensive miscue with a home run and the eventual game-winning hit. a walk-off that the Cubs hoped would return things to normalcy. Friday, that normalcy never arrived.
Cubs Giants baseball Jed Hoyer trade deadline Aug. 3 Matthew Boyd Edward Cabrera Cade Horton Justin Steele Pete Crow-Armstrong Seiya Suzuki Craig Counsell