CHICAGO (Interstat) — On a crisp Friday evening at a packed Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs delivered a potent reminder of their playoff-ready capabilities, overwhelming the St. Louis Cardinals 12-1 in the opener of their final regular-season series.

The victory, witnessed by 35,611 fans, was a showcase of power and pitching. The Cubs (90-70) hit four home runs, including a historic two-run shot by Pete Crow-Armstrong and a game-breaking grand slam from Seiya Suzuki, to move within one win of clinching home-field advantage for their upcoming National League Wild Card Series against the San Diego Padres.

The game began as a tight contest, a far cry from the lopsided final score. Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner provided an immediate response to the Cardinals’ early threat, launching a solo home run to center field in the bottom of the first inning to tie the game. The score remained deadlocked until the fourth, when Crow-Armstrong stepped to the plate.

With a runner on, Crow-Armstrong connected on a fly ball to right-center field for his 30th home run of the season. The blast cemented his place in franchise history, making him the first Cubs player ever to record 30 home runs, 30 doubles and 30 stolen bases in a single season.

Chicago extended its lead in the fifth inning when Michael Busch crushed his team-leading 32nd homer, a solo shot to center field, pushing the advantage to 4-0.

While the Cubs’ offense was building its lead, Chicago starter Colin Rea was methodically silencing the St. Louis bats. Rea, who earned the win to improve to 11-7, delivered a dominant performance, holding the Cardinals to just two hits over 5 2/3 scoreless innings while striking out seven. He navigated his only significant jam in the sixth, loading the bases with two walks and a single before striking out Nolan Arenado to end the threat and preserve the shutout.

The Cardinals (78-82) finally broke through in the top of the seventh against reliever Andrew Kittredge. Nolan Gorman led off with a double and scored on a two-out single by Jordan Walker, cutting the deficit to 4-1. But any momentum St. Louis gained was immediately and decisively erased in the bottom half of the inning.

The Cubs sent 11 batters to the plate in a seven-run explosion that turned the game into a rout. It began with a walk to Dansby Swanson. After a strikeout, Matt Shaw ripped a triple to left field to score Swanson. Busch followed with an RBI double, and Ian Happ added a run-scoring single. After a walk to Kyle Tucker loaded the bases, Suzuki stepped up and demolished a pitch to left-center field for a grand slam, his 30th homeer of the year. The slam made Suzuki the third Cub, alongside Busch and Crow-Armstrong, to reach the 30-homer plateau this season.

Chicago added one final run in the eighth on an RBI single by Kevin Alcántara to cap the scoring.

The offensive outburst made a winner of Rea and a loser of St. Louis starter Miles Mikolas, who fell to 8-11 after allowing four runs on four hits over five innings of work. The Cubs’ bullpen combination of Brad Keller, Kittredge and Daniel Palencia closed out the game with three innings of scoreless, hitless relief, striking out six.

The loss continued a disappointing finish for the Cardinals, who were officially eliminated from postseason contention earlier in the week. The Cubs, meanwhile, snapped a brief skid, having lost six of their previous seven games. They now turn their attention to securing the top wild-card spot, with their magic number to clinch home field against San Diego reduced to one.

The two historic rivals are scheduled to continue their three-game series on Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field. The Cubs will look to secure home-field advantage for the playoffs, while the Cardinals will aim to play spoiler in the final days of their season. The game was played in a brisk 2 hours, 39 minutes, a surprising pace given the 13 total runs scored, which surpassed the pregame over/under line of 9. The result defied the projection from Interstat’s game simulator, which had forecast a 6-5 victory for the Cardinals, though the Cubs entered as betting favorites with a 61.2% win probability according to ELO ratings.