None of that dented the number much pregame — Chicago opened as the short favorite on the moneyline and stayed there, with Miami still drawing plenty of run-line and total interest in the market. The board didn't move far off the news; it just went final with the Cubs on the right side of it.
Chicago scratched across a run in the 2nd, then blew it open with a 3-run 6th and tacked on single runs in the 7th and 9th to finish with 9 hits and 0 errors. Miami's only run came in the 7th, and its bats managed just 4 hits all night — a quiet, thin-lineup kind of loss for a Marlins club that's already shorthanded in the outfield.
The win pushed Chicago to 80-62 and kept its wild-card position intact as the Cubs try to hold pace behind the Phillies and stay ahead of a crowded pack that includes San Diego, Arizona and, yes, Miami's own long-shot hopes. The Marlins, at 71-71, are the team still trying to find out whether Caissie, Stowers and Marsee are a real core or just a nice August — nights like this one, without two of them in the lineup, don't answer that question either way.
The Polymarket room for this one ran a little above a typical night (about 6% over the season median crowd) and it came alive right as Chicago's 6th-inning rally landed — the busiest 5-minute stretch of chat hit in that window. "Need 3+ runs in the next 3 innings!" one poster wrote as Miami tried to find an answer late, and once it was over, someone holding the Cubs simply posted, "Happy For Yall."