Chicago Cubs make quick work of Baltimore Orioles in a 1-0 win on a busy day at Wrigley Field

Chicago Tribune

01-08-2025

An announcement that Wrigley Field will host the 2027 All-Star Game.
Tributes to Ryne Sandberg.
New players in the Chicago Cubs clubhouse after the trade deadline.
Oh, yeah, and a baseball game was played.
It was an eventful Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field, and the Cubs pulled off a 1-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in front of a crowd of 40,520 in a swift 1 hour, 49 minutes.
Rookie Cade Horton (5-3) threw five shutout innings, allowing just two hits, and catcher Carson Kelly scored on Ian Happ's sacrifice fly to right in the second. The ball didn't appear deep enough for Kelly to score, but he raced home and Tyler O'Neill's throw was off the mark.
'It was second gear for me,' Kelly joked. 'You do anything you can to win a game. For this team and this city, you have to give it everything you've got every single night.'
The Cubs (64-45) got four shutout innings from four relievers, including Andrew Kittredge, whom they picked up from the Orioles (50-60) in a trade before Thursday's deadline.
Kittredge had his family with him on this trip and they moved from one hotel to another. The next day he was facing his former teammates in the seventh inning. He got his former batterymate Adley Rutschman to fly out to left and struck out O'Neill and Colton Cowser.
'Rutschman caught my last outing, and I felt like he might know what I was throwing,' Kittredge said. 'I'm glad I got through it and we got the win.'
Horton hasn't given up a run since July 9. The 23-year-old has allowed no runs on eight hits in 16 innings in his last three starts, two of them wins.
'He's just very clearheaded out there and very focused,' Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. 'He doesn't let anything distract him from the next pitch.
'That's a very simple approach, but it's an advanced approach to be able to do that. For a young player in a new environment with extra stuff going around, Cade seems to be able to avoid all of that and block it out.'
Horton said slowing down the game and focusing on one pitch has been his approach no matter the count or how many men are on base.
But he knows he's on a roll.
'It's in the back of my head,' he said. 'But that's not going to help me go out there and pitch better. You still have to go out and do the work and execute pitches.'
The crowd was treated to a pregame scoreboard tribute to Sandberg, who died Monday at 65 after a recurrence of cancer. This was the Cubs' first home game since the Hall of Fame second baseman's death.
Former teammates Jody Davis, Shawon Dunston and Rick Sutcliffe delivered second base to the field in his honor.
'That was special,' Kelly said. 'I only got to spend a little bit of time with him, but the person he was and the player he was, I'm fortunate I got to meet him.'
The ballpark observed 23 seconds of silence in honor of Sandberg's number, and a video of him and his family singing 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' last season was shown during the seventh-inning stretch.
The Cubs all will wear No. 23 jerseys with no names on the back for Saturday's 1:20 p.m. game against the Orioles in Sandberg's honor.
Thursday's trade deadline brought four players to the Cubs: Kittredge, infielder/outfielder Willi Castro from the Minnesota Twins and pitchers Taylor Rogers from the Pittsburgh Pirates and Michael Soroka from the Washington Nationals.
Castro, who has been in the majors since 2019, said he had played in every ballpark except Wrigley Field until last year. Now he will get to know the park well.
'It feels like I'm home,' he said.
Before the game, the team optioned right-hander Gavin Hollowell and catcher Moisés Ballesteros to Triple-A Iowa.
Soroka, who pitched for the White Sox last year, did not report to the team before Friday's game, but Counsell has him penciled in to start Monday against the Cincinnati Reds.
Right-hander Jameson Taillon, who has been on the injured list since July 1 with a right calf strain, is pegged to throw a rehab start Sunday for Iowa.
Right-hander Javier Assad, who hasn't pitched for the Cubs this season after suffering a left oblique strain in spring training, will pitch for Iowa again Wednesday. He gave up two runs (one earned) in 3 2/3 innings for Iowa on Wednesday against Indianapolis.
Catcher Miguel Amaya, who also has a left oblique strain, was moved to the 60-day IL, but Counsell called that a 'paper move' to allow an extra 40-man roster spot.
'Everything is going well for him so far,' Counsell said of Amaya. 'He will continue in Iowa this week and then we will see where we are at.'