MIAMI — Seiya Suzuki homered twice and tripled, Shota Imanaga threw seven innings of two-run ball and the Chicago Cubs beat the Miami Marlins 14-2 on Saturday.
A day after hitting an inside-the-park home run, Pete Crow-Armstrong went deep with a 437-foot drive into the upper deck seats for the Cubs.
Miguel Amaya had three hits and a walk. The Cubs' catcher is 8 for 12 over the last three games. Patrick Wisdom also homered for Chicago, which finished with 17 hits.
''We got to relax a little bit late in the game,'' Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. ''It sets up the pitching really well.''
Imanaga (10-3) allowed four hits, walked two and struck out three. It was the rookie left-hander's seventh start of seven completed innings.
''I was able to go into the seventh but my goal is try to get into the eighth inning,'' Imanaga said through a translator. ''They were aggressive early in the count and I was noticing that. It was kind of my game plan — let them hit it and keep going from there.''
The Cubs (65-65) are 14-7 since July 31 and reached .500 for the first time since they were 31-31 on June 5. They dropped to a season low nine games under .500 at 39-48 on July 3.
''We dug ourselves a big hole,'' Counsell said. ''It's taken us a bit but this stretch, specifically at the end of August, we've played consistent baseball. It means that a lot of people are contributing. Consistency means you're getting contributions up and down the roster.''
