Ian Happ swats 2 of Cubs’ 5 HRs in win over Mariners

Ian Happ homered in each of the first two innings and the Chicago Cubs held on for a 10-7 win against the visiting Seattle Mariners in the second game of their three-game series on Saturday afternoon.

Happ has homered in each of the past three games, totaling four in all.

Kyle Tucker, Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong also homered for Chicago, which built a 9-1 lead after three innings.

Cubs rookie right-hander Cade Horton could not turn the big early lead into a victory for himself and departed after 4 2/3 innings. He was tagged for six runs (three earned) and seven hits, striking out two and walking two on 90 pitches.

Brad Keller (3-0) earned the win in relief with 1 2/3 scoreless innings.

Seattle starter Emerson Hancock (3-3) surrendered nine runs and six hits in four innings. He struck out five and walked three.

Cal Raleigh hit his MLB-leading 30th home run of the season, Donovan Solano and Luke Raley each had three hits and two RBIs and Jorge Polanco had two hits and scored three times for the Mariners, who won the series opener 9-4 on Friday afternoon.

Happ led off the bottom of the first with a home run for the second straight day to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead. Tucker, the next hitter, went deep over the fence in right-center field to make it 2-0.

The bright, windy conditions at Wrigley Field created havoc throughout the day.

After a leadoff walk to Polanco in the second, Crow-Armstrong misjudged a high fly to deep center for a double, and a shallow fly by Luke Raley to left then fell at the feet of Happ, scoring Polanco to make it 2-1.

After a leadoff walk, a double and Nico Hoerner’s run-scoring groundout made it 3-1 in the second, No. 9 hitter Vidal Brujan walked and Happ followed with a three-run homer to center for a 6-1 lead.

Busch hit another three-run homer in the fourth to extend the lead to 9-1.

Horton surrendered two runs in the fourth on an RBI single by Solano and a sacrifice fly by Cole Young to cut it to 9-3.

A throwing error by third baseman Brujan with two outs in the fifth allowed Seattle to trim its deficit to 9-4 and ended the day for Horton.

Drew Pomeranz entered and gave up back-to-back RBI singles to right by Raley and Solano to cut it to 9-6.

Crow-Armstrong belted his team-leading 21st home run of the season in the fifth to make it 10-6.

Raleigh homered for the third time in the series in the ninth to cut it to 10-7.

The game was delayed for about 15 minutes in the top of the sixth because home plate umpire Chad Whitson needed to be replaced for heat-related reasons. The game-time temperature was 94 degrees.

Mariners reliever Trent Thornton also had to be helped off the field in the eighth because of the heat.

–Field Level Media