Chicago Cubs Score and Recap (8/1/25): Cubs 1, Orioles 0 – Horton, Bullpen Post Lightning Fast Shutout

The Cubs and Orioles met in the first game of their series on a bright and sunny afternoon at Wrigley Field on Friday afternoon. The conditions strongly favored the pitchers with the wind howling in and Chicago scored the only run of the game to secure a shutout victory.

The North Siders put together their only rally of the afternoon against Trevor Rogers in the bottom of the 2nd with a Carson Kelly single and a double by Pete Crow-Armstrong that put runners on second and third with nobody out. Ian Happ hit a sacrifice fly with one out to put the home team ahead 1-0.

Cade Horton had another excellent start for the Cubs, throwing five scoreless frames to protect the lead. The bullpen took over from there and continued to put up zeros throughout the afternoon. Baltimore got the tying run to second in the top of the 9th, but Daniel Palencia got Tyler O’Neill to fly out to the wall in left for the final out of a 1-0 win. (Box score)

Key Moment

Happ’s sac fly was not hit very deep into right field, and Kelly took a bit of a risk tagging on the play. Luckily for Chicago, O’Neill’s throw was way up the third baseline and the big catcher scored the eventual winning run easily.

Why the Cubs Won

Great all-around work by the pitching staff on Friday made the single run the offense produced stand up.

Stats That Matter

• Horton has been brilliant in the second half, having allowed no runs in 17 innings: 5 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 3 K, 3 BB.
• Newly acquired reliever Andrew Kittredge tossed a perfect 7th inning in his Cubs debut.
• Kelly had two of the four hits for Chicago on Friday.

Bottom Line

Friday’s game was incredibly efficient, taking only one hour and 49 minutes to play. Horton was a major part of that, and the Cubs have to be thrilled with how quickly he has developed into a quality MLB starter. While it is frustrating that Chicago failed to add an impact starter at the deadline, the two bullpen arms they got are going to be a big help the rest of the year.

On Deck

The second game of the series is Saturday afternoon at 1:20pm CT. Ben Brown takes the mound against Tomoyuki Sugano in a contest available on FS1 and Marquee with a radio feed on 670 The Score.