BOX SCORE

The Chicago Cubs own the best run differential (+107) in Major League Baseball. Friday’s 11-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals was just another example of what one of the league’s most prolific offenses can do.

A combined nine home runs later — a franchise-record eight for Chicago and one for St. Louis — here are three things we learned as the Cubs (53-35) downed the NL Central rival Cardinals (47-42) in the Fourth of July series opener at Wrigley Field.

Fireworks on the Fourth

The Cubs rocketed four homers off Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas for the second consecutive season.

But then they kept hitting them. And the records kept coming.

Complete with multi-homer games from Michael Busch (Nos. 14, 15 and 16) and Pete Crow-Armstrong (Nos. 22 and 23), along with solo shots from Seiya Suzuki (No. 24) and Carson Kelly (No. 10), the Cubs suddenly were only one home run away from their single-game high of seven. They’d collectively hit seven bombs four times before, most recently on Aug. 1, 2023 in a 20-9 win over the Cincinnati Reds.

Then Dansby Swanson (No. 15) struck gold in the seventh inning with a two-run shot to make it 10-1. The record was tied.

Later in the inning, Busch hit his third homer of the game to make franchise history, which now will list eight home runs as the single-game record.

The Cubs also hit six homers in the first three innings of a game for the first time in franchise history. It was a tough go for Mikolas, who became the pitcher to allow the most homers in one game in Cardinals history. He also tied the MLB record in the process.

Step Brothers? More like Bash Brothers

You’ve probably seen many a Cub sporting a hilarious T-shirt depicting Crow-Armstrong and Suzuki as the main characters from the 2008 movie “Step Brothers.” 

It’s a meme born out of the Cubs stars’ brotherly relationship, fueled partly by their ability to one-up each other every time one of them goes deep. Entering Friday, Crow-Armstrong and Suzuki had homered in the same game five times this season.

They wasted no time doing it again Friday.

Suzuki got the scoring going when he crushed a 413-foot solo shot in the bottom of the first. Naturally, Crow-Armstrong responded with a dinger of his own, going back-to-back with Suzuki. That’s now six times this season that Crow-Armstrong, who was named an All-Star Game starter Wednesday, and Suzuki, who leads MLB in RBI (74), have used their dual power as a lethal weapon on this Cubs offense.

Suzuki also matched his career-high RBI count with his homer — with the All-Star break still two weeks away. That break is one in which Suzuki is looking more and more likely to spend at the MLB All-Star Game in Atlanta, with the Japanese slugger slashing .262/.318/.554 (.872 OPS) this season. He’s heating up at the right time, mashing six homers and 13 RBI with a .956 OPS over his last 15 games. 

Crow-Armstrong notched his fourth multi-homer game of the season, continuing his hot-hitting July trajectory after a cooled-off June, in which he hit just .240 with a .742 OPS.

Kept ‘em quiet

While the Cubs’ offense had a field day, Colin Rea made sure the Cardinals didn’t have the same luxury.

The veteran right-hander was coming off two rough starts against the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros, allowing a combined nine earned runs on 16 hits over 10.1 innings.

When the Cubs were in St. Louis last week, the Cardinals exploded for eight runs in each of the first two games of the four-game set, hitting seven total homers off Ben Brown and Jameson Taillon. This time around, though, Rea limited the Cardinals to only one long ball — a solo shot by Brendan Donovan in the fourth.

That was the only hit and the only run Rea allowed. He finished his day after 6.2 innings of one-run ball, striking out four, lowering his season ERA to 4.13 and improving his record to 6-3.

The rivalry continues Saturday at 1:20 p.m. CT. In the wake of Jameson Taillon’s IL stint, the Cubs will work a bullpen game, while left-hander Matthew Liberatore (6-6, 3.70 ERA) is scheduled to take the mound for the Cardinals. Game coverage begins at noon on Marquee Sports Network.