DENVER (AP) — Seiya Suzuki hit his third career grand slam, Alex Bregman added a two-run homer and the Chicago Cubs snapped a three-game skid with a 9-3 win over the Colorado Rockies on Thursday.
Chicago, which had scored three or fewer runs in seven of its last nine games before Thursday, had its highest run total since beating Pittsburgh 10-4 on May 27.
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Colorado Rockies' Cole Carrigg circles the bases after hitting a solo home run off Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Edward Cabrera in the fourth inning of a baseball game Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Chicago Cubs' Michael Busch follows his RBI single off Colorado Rockies relief pitcher Blas Castaño in the fifth inning of a baseball game Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell, left, argues with second base umpire David Rackley after Chicago Cubs designated hitter Moisés Ballesteros hit into a double play in the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies, Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Chicago Cubs' Seiya Suzuki follows the flight of his grand slam off Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Ryan Feltner in the fourth inning of a baseball game Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Cubs manager Craig Counsell was ejected in the top of the sixth by home plate umpire Louis Krupa after arguing Moises Ballesteros’ double-play grounder appeared to hit off his shin guard and should have been ruled a foul ball.
Brett Sullivan hit two home runs and Cole Carrigg, who made his MLB debut Tuesday night, added a solo shot for Colorado.
Rockies starter Ryan Feltner (2-2) retired the first nine batters he faced before Pete Crow-Armstrong led off the fourth with a single. The Cubs added another single and walk to load the bases before Suzuki lined a sinker down the left-field line for his 10th homer of the season and first slam since September of last season.
The Cubs added two more runs in the fifth, Bregman hit his sixth homer in the seventh, and Carson Kelly capped the scoring with a solo shot, his third, in the eighth.
Sullivan gave Colorado a 1-0 lead in the third with his first home run and Carrigg hit one 418 feet into the Rockies bullpen in the fourth.
Those were the only runs allowed by Chicago starter Edward Cabrera (4-3), who left after retiring Hunter Goodman with one out in the sixth. Cabrera allowed five hits, two earned runs and struck out five.
Sullivan added a single and homered in the ninth for his first career multi-homer game.
Cubs: Have not announced a starter for Friday’s opener against Giants RHP Landon Roupp (5-6, 4.00 ERA) at San Francisco.
Rockies: Have not announced a starter for Friday’s opener against Athletics LHP Gage Jump (2-1, 2.45 ERA) in Las Vegas.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Colorado Rockies' Cole Carrigg circles the bases after hitting a solo home run off Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Edward Cabrera in the fourth inning of a baseball game Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Chicago Cubs' Michael Busch follows his RBI single off Colorado Rockies relief pitcher Blas Castaño in the fifth inning of a baseball game Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell, left, argues with second base umpire David Rackley after Chicago Cubs designated hitter Moisés Ballesteros hit into a double play in the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies, Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Chicago Cubs' Seiya Suzuki follows the flight of his grand slam off Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Ryan Feltner in the fourth inning of a baseball game Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court says Alabama cannot proceed with a nitrogen gas execution after a lower court ruled that the method is unconstitutional.
The justices declined to lift an injunction blocking the state from carrying out the nation’s ninth execution by nitrogen gas. The decision spared death row inmate Jeffery Lee, 49, from being put to death by nitrogen Thursday night.
A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections said the execution was off for the evening and the state would not try another method.
The ruling capped an extraordinary legal back-and-forth over the humaneness of the execution method.
Lee filed a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s protocol as a violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and U.S. District Judge Emily Marks ruled the method constitutional in May.
But a three-judge panel from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed her decision Monday, saying the three minutes it could take for an inmate to lose awareness is an “intolerable” time frame “given the suffering that would likely take place under Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol.”
Marks reevaluated the case and ruled again Tuesday saying Lee had shown “that the protocol constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.” The state appealed to the Supreme Court, which denied its request to move forward with the nitrogen execution.
Marks did not block the state from executing Lee with one of the other approved methods, the electric chair or lethal injection. It is unclear how quickly the state could switch, however.
Alabama began using nitrogen gas to carry out some executions in 2024. The method involves strapping a respirator to a person’s face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death from lack of oxygen.
Nitrogen has been used in eight executions in the United States — seven times in Alabama and once in Louisiana. Lee was scheduled to be the ninth.
Lee, who is currently housed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, was convicted of two counts of capital murder for killing Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson while robbing a pawnshop on Dec. 12, 1998.
Prosecutors said Lee entered Jimmy’s Pawnshop with a sawed-off shotgun and shot Ellis, the owner, and Thompson, an employee.
A jury voted 7-5 to give Lee a sentence of life imprisonment. However a judge overrode that and sentenced him to death.
Alabama ended the practice of judicial override in 2017 and no longer allows a judge to disregard a jury’s sentencing decision in death penalty cases.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama is waging a last-minute legal fight to execute a man with nitrogen gas Thursday night, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to set aside a judge's finding that the method violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Jeffery Lee, 49, is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. However a federal judge ruled Tuesday that nitrogen executions are unconstitutional and blocked the state from using the method to put Lee to death. The state filed an appeal Thursday asking the Supreme Court to set aside the ruling and allow the execution.
“If that ruling stands, it would be unprecedented in American history. Not only does it portend the first-ever permanent ban on a legislatively enacted method, but it would expand the concept of cruelty well beyond the bounds of the Eighth Amendment,” lawyers with the Alabama Attorney General's Office wrote. The Supreme Court has never ruled that a state's execution method violates the Constitution.
Lee's lawyers asked the high court to keep the execution on hold, saying in a response that Alabama is asking it to intervene at the eleventh hour “to allow an execution that has been found unconstitutional to proceed.”
Prison officials said Lee did not request a final meal Thursday but had potato chips, Skittles, water and a Sprite in the hours ahead of his possible execution.
His case has put a spotlight on the nitrogen method and the sharp disagreements over its use.
The execution method involves strapping a respirator to the person’s face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death from a lack of oxygen. Nitrogen has been used in eight executions in the United States — seven in Alabama and one in Louisiana. Lee was scheduled to be the ninth person put the death by nitrogen.
U.S. District Judge Emily Marks ruled Tuesday, after an appeals court reversed her initial finding that the method was constitutional, that Lee had shown by a “preponderance of the evidence that the protocol constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.”
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision Wednesday night, rejected Alabama's request to stay the ruling. The court earlier said the three minutes that it could take for an inmate to lose awareness is an “intolerable” time frame, “given the suffering that would likely take place under Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol.”
During the previous Alabama nitrogen executions, the inmates shook, pulled at the restraints and exhibited labored breathing. During the state’s last execution by nitrogen gas, 30 minutes elapsed between Anthony Boyd exhibiting signs of being impacted by the gas and state officials closing the curtain to the viewing room to signal the execution was complete.
The state has maintained that the method is constitutional and causes no more suffering than other execution methods.
A jury convicted Lee of two counts of capital murder for killing Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson while robbing a pawnshop on Dec. 12, 1998. Prosecutors said Lee entered Jimmy’s Pawnshop with a sawed-off shotgun and shot Ellis, the owner of the store, and Thompson, a store employee.
A jury voted 7-5 that Lee should receive a sentence of life imprisonment. However, a judge overrode that recommendation and sentenced Lee to death. Alabama in 2017 ended the practice of judicial override and no longer allows a judge to disregard a jury’s sentencing decision in death penalty cases.
Bestselling author John Grisham called on Gov. Kay Ivey to honor the jury's decision and commute Lee's sentence to life without parole.
“The practice of a judge overriding a jury was declared unconstitutional and so indefensible that Alabama itself abolished it in 2017,” Grisham said in a statement. “Jeffery Lee’s jury made its decision, the Alabama Legislature later agreed that juries, not judges, should decide life or death sentences.”
Marks did not block the state from using its other authorized execution methods, lethal injection and the electric chair. However, it is unclear if the state could swiftly change the method.
This undated photo provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections on Thursday, June 11, 2026, shows Jeffery Lee, who was sentenced to death for killing two people during a 1998 robbery at a pawn shop. (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP)
Protesters gather outside the Capitol in Montgomery, Ala., on Monday, June 8, 2026, to oppose an upcoming execution in Alabama. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
This undated photo from the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Jeffery Lee, who was sentenced to death for killing two people during a 1998 robbery at a pawn shop. (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP)
Abraham Bonowitz, of the group Death Penalty Action, leads a demonstration outside the Capitol in Montgomery, Ala., on Monday, June 8, 2026, to oppose an upcoming execution in Alabama. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)
