Kyle Tucker gets revenge as the Chicago Cubs crush the Houston Astros 12-3 on June 29, 2025. Read how Tucker and a rough start from Framber Valdez ended the streak.
StatPro MLB Beat Reporter
It was the storyline Astros fans dreaded. Kyle Tucker, the former homegrown star, returned to face his old team and delivered a performance for the ages, leading the Chicago Cubs to a brutal 12-3 victory that snapped Houston's five-game winning streak. The loss was a stark reminder of what could have been and a sour end to an otherwise successful week.
Kyle Tucker went 4-for-5 with a three-run homer against his old team. Of course he did.
The game was competitive for a few innings, but it all came apart in the fourth. Framber Valdez, who has been a rock for the rotation, had his roughest outing of the season. The Cubs exploded for six runs, punctuated by a dagger of a three-run homer from none other than Kyle Tucker. Valdez couldn't escape the inning, finishing with a line of 7 runs (6 earned) on 9 hits. The bullpen couldn't stop the bleeding either, as Seth Martinez and Rafael Montero allowed five more runs, turning a bad day into a blowout.
In a 12-3 shellacking, it's hard to find positives, but a couple of Astros hitters refused to go down quietly. Yordan Alvarez continued his powerful season, launching a solo shot for his 9th home run. Meanwhile, Jeremy Peña chipped in with a solid 2-for-4 day, including an RBI single. It wasn't nearly enough to overcome the deficit, but it's a reminder that the core of this offense can produce even on a tough day.
The buzz on social media was all about one man: King Tuck. Astros fans flooded timelines with a mix of pain, nostalgia, and begrudging respect for their former right fielder. Seeing Tucker dominate in a Cubs uniform, especially his four-hit, three-RBI performance against the team that drafted him, was a bitter pill. It's the kind of 'what if' scenario that will fuel talk radio and fan debates for days.
Let's take a deep breath. A single loss, no matter how ugly, doesn't erase a five-game winning streak. At 49-34, the Astros still sit comfortably atop the AL West. The team remains healthy, with no new injuries or roster shakeups. This loss serves as a reality check. While the big-league club is built to win now, the front office continues its strategy of finding value in an 'underranked' farm system, a philosophy that produced Tucker in the first place and must continue to bear fruit to sustain this level of success.
One game doesn't define a season. The streak is over, and the loss to a former hero stings, but the focus must shift immediately. This is a veteran team that knows how to flush a bad performance. The challenge now is to bounce back, get a quality start from the next man up, and prove that Sunday's rout was an aberration, not the start of a trend. It's time to start a new streak.
