During the Cubs’ 10-2 demolition of the Athletics Wednesday afternoon, I got a text from a friend of mine: “Maybe the Cubs should move to Sacramento.”

Well, of course that’s a silly notion, but the Cubs sure seemed to enjoy hitting in Sutter Health Park, where they smashed eight home runs and outscored the home team 35-9. Seiya Suzuki hit three of the eight homers, including a pair in this win. Fun fact about that run differential from BCB’s JohnW53:

The Cubs outscored the Athletics by 26 runs in the series, 35-9. Since 1901, they have had only two larger run differentials in three straight games on the road against the same opponent twice: 27 runs at Philadelphia, 30-3, in 1902 (12-0, 7-2 and 11-1) and 33 runs at New York, 36-3, in 1906 (6-0, 11-3, 19-0).

They were +25 twice, in 1908 at Cincinnati and 1945 at Boston. Their previous high since 1945 was +23, 26-3, in their last trip to Oakland two years ago!

Let’s have a look at how they accomplished this win, the last of a three-game sweep.

For the first time in the series, the Cubs did not score in the first inning. But they made up for that with a four-run second.

Nico Hoerner walked and stole second. One out later, Matt Shaw walked, and while that was going on, Nico stole third.

Carson Kelly scored Nico with this sac fly [VIDEO].

Ian Happ followed with a single, sending Shaw to third.

Suzuki then hit the first of his two home runs [VIDEO].

The Cubs made it 5-0 in the third. Justin Turner led off with a single, and Dansby Swanson reached on an error. Two infield popups followed, but then Shaw singled in Turner [VIDEO].

The A’s made it 5-2 in the bottom of the third on a two-run homer by Brent Rooker. No shame in that, Rooker hit 39 home runs last year and is one of the better hitters in the league.

Three more Cubs runs crossed the plate in the fourth. The first was on Suzuki’s second home run of the game [VIDEO].

I would like to show you home run distances here, but it appears Sutter Health Park doesn’t have that data available — I haven’t seen it for any of the homers in this series. From BCB’s JohnW53 on Suzuki’s day:

This was Suzuki’s fourth game with two homers. All have been on the road: at Pittsburgh in 2022, at Houston in 2023, at Miami in 2004 and at Sacramento today. He has hit 34 of his 59 homers on the road. His second homer was just the fourth he has hit to right field. He has hit six to right-center.

Anyway, that made it 6-2. After that, Kyle Tucker walked and stole second, and one out later scored on another single by Hoerner [VIDEO].

Pete Crow-Armstrong scored Nico with this double [VIDEO].

The only blip in Jameson Taillon’s outing was the homer by Rooker. He completed six innings, allowed just the two runs and struck out seven, which you can see here [VIDEO].

Here’s a breakdown of Taillon’s outing [VIDEO].

Here’s more on Taillon’s start [VIDEO].

For those concerned about Taillon after his rough start in Arizona, this one resembled his 2024 season quite a bit more. I think he’ll be just fine.

The Cubs plated two more in the seventh. With one out, PCA was hit by a pitch. He then stole second and scored on this single by Shaw [VIDEO].

Kelly then walked, and one out later Suzuki drove in his fifth run of the afternoon with this single [VIDEO].

Brad Keller, Nate Pearson and Eli Morgan finished up with one scoreless inning each, which is good to see after after all three had rough outings earlier in the road trip. Morgan didn’t start the ninth well, allowing a leadoff double and walk, but got out of it with a double play and this ground out to end the game [VIDEO].

So. Concerned about Suzuki because of all the strikeouts? Who cares? He’s got a .958 OPS, four home runs and 11 RBI. Concerned about Shaw? He went 2-for-4 with a walk. Concerned about PCA? He went 2-for-4 and stole a base. These players will all be fine. In fact, it seems like Suzuki is setting up to be one of the best hitters in the league this year. The Cubs had 11 hits and seven walks and could have scored even more runs — they left 10 runners on base.

The Cubs had a successful road trip at 5-2. Yes, it could have (and probably should have) been 6-1, but historically the Cubs have not done well on West Coast trips and 5-2 is a very good result on any road trip. The team went over .500 at 5-4 and remains half a game out of first place behind the Cardinals, who also won Wednesday afternoon.

One last note on this sweep from BCB’s JohnW53:

The Cubs have won nine consecutive games on the road against the Athletics: three-game sweeps in 2016, 2023 and this week. That is a longer such streak than the Cubs have had since 1901 against all but three other teams: the Braves (high of 16 games), Cardinals (11) and Phillies (10, twice). They have had a pair of nine-game road streaks vs. the Reds.

And, after three games like that…

The team flight back to Chicago will thus no doubt be a happy one, as the Cubs will enjoy a day off Thursday and then play their 2025 Wrigley Field opener Friday afternoon against the Padres. At this time there is no starter listed for the Cubs, but based on the current rotation, it likely will be Shōta Imanaga taking the mound for his second straight home opener. Randy Vásquez will start for San Diego. Game time Friday is 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.