Nearly 2 months later, the Cubs finally go home to Chicago for their Wrigley Field opener on Friday

By Canadian Press on April 2, 2025.

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Pull out the hand warmers. Seiya Suzuki is headed home to Wrigley Field at last, and he promises to be well prepared for whatever chilly elements he faces in an unpredictable Chicago spring.

“Is Chicago warm yet?” the right fielder inquired with a grin, standing at his locker Wednesday after hitting two home runs and an RBI single in another dominant day by the slugging Cubs in a 10-2 victory to sweep the Athletics.

“I’m looking forward to playing in front of the home fans and I’ll be ready. I’m going to have a lot of hot packs all over my body to stay warm,” the averse-to-cold-weather Suzuki said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry.

The Cubs were in Arizona for spring training, began the regular season in Japan, went back to Phoenix to face the Diamondbacks in a four-game set and then traveled to Northern California.

Now, the San Diego Padres come to town beginning with a Friday matinee and more opening day fanfare.

Suzuki sure hopes to bring some momentum from the past few games to Wrigley. After going 0 for 9 against the Dodgers over the two season-opening games playing at home in Japan and 4 of 25 through six games following a four-game series at Arizona, he is suddenly on a nice roll.

The 30-year-old outfielder was 7 for 15 with the two homers and nine RBIs against the A’s.

“Seiya does have probably pound for pound some of the most juice in the league,” Chicago center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong said of his 6-foot, 182-pound teammate. “He’s just a very efficient mover and someone that’s visually very nice to watch hit. It was a little tough start for him this year, at least he felt like it was, and he made these last three games look pretty easy.”

Suzuki hit an early three-run homer for the second consecutive game when he connected in the second inning off Jeffrey Springs (1-1). Suzuki went deep again leading off the fourth before adding a late RBI single.

“He’s a professional hitter. He’s in the middle of that lineup because he can do damage,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “He came into this series, it’s obviously early in the year, not swinging the bat well. He had a great series. He took advantage of a lot of mistakes in the middle. He hit the fastball. With him and (Kyle) Tucker, 2-3, you can put those 2-3 up against probably most lineups and have a lot of respect for those guys.”

It was Suzuki’s fourth career multi-homer game. He has at least two hits in each of his last four games, with four home runs and 11 RBIs during that span.

Tucker had homered in a career-high four straight games through Tuesday night’s 7-4 win after connecting for a solo shot during an 18-3 rout Monday, but didn’t clear the fences in the finale.

Suzuki & Co. will aim to keep it going.

“Since the Tokyo series in the beginning it wasn’t going great, but I think in the short span of time I’ve been able to do well, so that helps my confidence,” Suzuki said. “It’s still early in the season but the goal is to hopefully keep this going for a while.”

There were few signs of fatigue by any of the Cubs at this early stage of the season in spite of the grueling travel schedule. Chicago outscored the A’s 35-9 in the first major league series played at Sutter Health Park, the former-Oakland club’s planned home for the next three years before a proposed relocation to Las Vegas.

New Cubs first baseman Justin Turner, a well-traveled veteran beginning his 17th big league campaign, is eager to get settled at his latest career stop in the Windy City.

“I get to see what my home looks like,” Turner said. “I haven’t seen it.”

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Janie Mccauley, The Associated Press