A day after ending the Boston Red Sox’s MLB high 10-game win streak, the Chicago Cubs came in game two behind Shota Imanaga to start the second half of the season 2-0 with a 6-0 win, Saturday evening. 

By way of five home runs, the Cubs, who are now second in MLB with 148 home runs, used back-to-back shots in the first inning and in the eighth inning to grow their league-leading run differential to + 128. 

The win on Saturday gave the Cubs their second consecutive series victory and their fourth straight win. This was the Cubs’ 11th shutout victory of the season, behind pitching and home run hitting. 

Chicago (59-39) are now 20 games over, a season-high. 500, lead the NL Central by 1.5 over the Milwaukee Brewers, and a game over the Los Angeles Dodgers for the top spot in the National League Conference. 

Busch stay hot at the top

Since manager Craig Counsell made Michael Busch the Cubs’ lead-off hitter on July 13th against the Yankees, Busch has produced and jump-started the offense. Whether this is the long-term option remains to be determined. 

Busch has reached base in the three games since leading off, and has two home runs, including a first-pitch blast in the bottom of the first to lead off the game tonight. 

Two more hits today jumped Busch’s batting average to over .290 with his 20th homerun of the season, and his 60th RBI of the season. 

This is reminiscent of when Anthony Rizzo sparked the same production at the top of the batting order, also homering in two of his first three games at the lead-off hitter. 

Shota shoves

Since returning from his hamstring injury, Shota is now 4-2 in games started and now has back-to-back starts of seven shutout innings.

Imanaga retired a game-high 11 straight Red Sox hitters, and of his five hits given up on Saturday, two of them came from Boston’s Masataka Yoshida. 

Cubs’ aforementioned ace struck out four of his five batters Saturday night via his splitter, and lefties for the Red Sox were 1-for-4 with a walk. 

His ERA now sits at 2.40, with a 7-3 record. 

Chicago will go for the sweet tomorrow at 1:20 p.m. and stay in their homestand for three more games against the Kansas City Royals.