Cubs Smash Five Homers to Tie Weekend Showdown Against Tigers

DETROIT — The battle between the best teams in each league won’t be decided until Sunday.

The Chicago Cubs hit five home runs to beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-1, on Saturday afternoon at Comerica Park.

The Tigers (42-24), who have the best record in the American League, and the Cubs (40-24), leaders of the National League, will meet in the rubber match of the three-game series on Sunday. The Tigers won the series opener on Friday .

Four of the Cubs’ five homers on Saturday were solo shots, including two by Seiya Suzuki.

“They ambushed early and still hit five balls out of the ballpark on secondary pitches,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch. “Five homers, all off-speed. Solo homers aren’t supposed to beat you, but they can when you give up a bunch of them.”

Tyler Holton opened the game for the Tigers and retired Ian Happ and Kyle Tucker — his two primary objectives as a lefty opener — but then fell victim to Suzuki, a lefty-killer who lined a home run to left field.

The Cubs extended their lead in the fifth when Nico Hoerner reached on an infield single and Michael Busch followed with a two-run homer off Tigers right-hander Keider Montero.

Pete Crow-Armstrong and Matt Shaw hit solo shots against Montero in the seventh. When Montero exited after 5 2/3 innings, Suzuki took Tigers reliever Chase Lee deep in the eighth for his second homer of the game.

The Tigers got on the board in the fifth when Zach McKinstry tripled into the right-field corner and scored on a grounder by Jake Rogers.

But the Tigers’ offense couldn’t muster much else against Cubs starter Jameson Taillon, who allowed one run on three hits — McKinstry’s triple and two singles by Gleyber Torres — across seven innings.

“We didn’t get to the fastball, and we didn’t wait on the change,” Hinch said. “He had us on both sides of the spectrum, and as a veteran guy, he kept pounding that sequence. It was getting some early outs, and we didn’t have great swings on him.”

Tigers left fielder Riley Greene struck out in all four of his at-bats for the second time in a 10-day span.

“I haven’t talked to him after the game. Might want to leave him alone for 24 hours and let him come back ready to hit in the middle of our order tomorrow,” Hinch said. “He has these stretches. Sometimes it’s about selection, sometimes it’s about approach. He’ll be back in there tomorrow, and he’ll be fine.”

The Tigers-Cubs series drew a sellout crowd for the second straight game. A solid minority of the 41,034 fans in attendance were wearing blue and cheering on the Cubs.

BOX SCORE

Up next : The Tigers and Cubs wrap up their three-game series on Sunday at 1:40 p.m.

Tigers right-hander Jack Flaherty (4-6, 3.72 ERA) will face Cubs rookie righty Cade Horton (3-0, 4.21).

Flaherty pitched six strong innings, allowing just one run on four hits, in the Tigers’ 13-1 win at Chicago against the White Sox on June 2 .

Flaherty, who spent most of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, has made 15 career starts against the Cubs. This will be his first as a member of the Tigers.

Horton, 23, was the seventh overall pick in the 2022 draft out of the University of Oklahoma. The Cubs are 5-0 in his first five career starts.

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