Walker Homers Twice, Teng Shuts Chicago Out as Cubs Drop Seventh Straight

CHICAGO — Christian Walker came up in the first inning with Yordan Alvarez on base and two outs, and he hit a Colin Rea slider 376 feet to left-center for a 2-0 Houston lead. He came up again in the fourth inning, nobody on, nobody out, and he hit a Rea sinker 369 feet to left-center to make it 3-0. That was the whole game. Walker did it twice and Kai-Wei Teng did the rest.

The Cubs lost their seventh consecutive game Saturday afternoon, 3-0, in front of 40,017 at Wrigley Field. Seven straight losses is the longest skid since the Cubs dropped nine in a row from July 7-16, 2022. The offense has produced two runs over the last three games combined. The 15-game home winning streak that felt like the story of this season is a memory.

Walker Doesn't Miss Mistakes

Rea gave the Cubs seven innings — a season-high — and it still wasn't enough. The problem was the two pitches Walker hit out of the yard.

The first one came with two outs in the bottom of the first, Alvarez having reached to set the table. Rea got to a 1-0 count and threw a slider, and Walker drove it the other way into the Wrigley bleachers without appearing to try particularly hard. Exit velocity 105.5 mph. Two runs, just like that, before the crowd had fully settled in.

The second one came in the fourth. Leadoff at-bat, 3-2 count, sinker — Walker sent it 369 feet to the same place for his 13th home run of the season. Three runs total, all on two swings. Everything in between Rea was fine. He held Houston hitless in five of his seven innings. None of it mattered.

Walker finished 3-for-4 with a single thrown in for good measure. He drove in all three Astros runs. He's the reason Houston takes the series lead heading into Sunday. Rea takes the loss.

Teng Was in a Different Gear

There wasn't much the Cubs could do about Kai-Wei Teng on Saturday afternoon. The Taiwanese right-hander threw six shutout innings in the longest outing of his three-year major league career — two hits, six strikeouts, three walks, 89 pitches, and a game score of 71 that does nothing to tell you how thoroughly he owned the strike zone.

Twenty-three called strikes. Ten swings and misses. The Cubs weren't chasing — they were losing before they ever got the bat off their shoulder. Wrigley's wind was blowing in, which should have helped him, and it clearly did.

Teng moved from the Giants to Houston this offseason and has been one of the more reliable starters in the American League. He's 3-3 with a 2.19 ERA and the Cubs' lineup couldn't touch him Saturday. Steven Okert, Enyel De Los Santos, and Bryan King handled the final three innings without incident. King earned his sixth save.

The Cubs finished with three hits — Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman each singled, Dansby Swanson had the other. That was it.

The Offense Has Gone Quiet at the Worst Time

Since the final game of their 10-game winning streak — a 7-1 win at Texas on May 8 — the Cubs have scored 31 runs in 13 games. Eighteen of those runs came in two games. That leaves 13 runs in the other eleven, with no more than three in any of them.

Saturday they scored zero.

Ian Happ got the day off. Pete Crow-Armstrong moved to the leadoff spot and was caught stealing in the second — his fourth time getting thrown out on the bases this season. Moisés Ballesteros drew two walks as a designated hitter but never got a chance to do any damage with them. Michael Busch went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Seiya Suzuki hit into a double play. The Cubs left just three runners on base all game — not because they drove anyone in, but because they couldn't get anyone on.

The lineup is 29-23 and three games out of first place in the NL Central. Milwaukee is 30-18 and playing like the team that swept the Cubs out of Wrigley five days ago. This stretch hasn't cost Chicago the division — not yet — but the direction is wrong.

Rea's Season in Miniature

Colin Rea's night illustrated exactly what his 2026 has looked like in microcosm. He kept the Astros off the board for long stretches, worked efficiently through five of seven innings, and still gave up three runs on two pitches to one hitter.

Over his last five starts coming in, Rea had posted a 7.04 ERA. Tonight's line — seven innings, four hits, three earned runs, a game score of 58 — was better than that, technically. But the result is the same. Seven innings against a 22-31 team that was missing its best hitter for the final three frames, and the Cubs couldn't score once.

Yordan Alvarez left the game in the sixth inning with a back spasm. He'd been on base in the first when Walker hit his first homer, took a walk in the game's only uneventful AB against Rea, and then led off the sixth before requiring two visits from manager Joe Espada and the team trainer. Espada let him take the plate appearance, Alvarez swung through one pitch, and that was it. Zach Dezenzo came in as his replacement. The Astros have not announced an IL move.

Pitching Lines

What's Next

The Cubs and Astros wrap up the series Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Houston sends right-hander Peter Lambert (2-4, 3.57 ERA) to the mound. Shota Imanaga (4-4, 3.38 ERA) gets the ball for Chicago. First pitch is at 1:20 p.m. CT.