After his exit, Lester kept one eye on a few replays of his pitches in the video room and the other on the bottom of the ninth that was unfolding.
Advertisement
Colorado Rockies’ Nolan Arenado (28) is greeted by teammate Gerardo Parra (8) after hitting a solo home run against the Chicago Cubs during the ninth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, April 17, 2016, in Chicago.
PIRATES 5, BREWERS 0 Andrew McCutchen hit his first home run of the season and Jon Niese combined with two relievers on a three-hitter as the Pittsburgh Pirates blanked the Milwaukee Brewers to end their four-game losing streak. Chicago had been averaging 6.45 runs per game, second in the majors. With Lester on the mound again, David Ross will start his second consecutive game. “He was able to tie our lefties up, which is hard to do, and kept our righties off balanced with that sinker”.
The Cubs tried to come back in the ninth. If only Kris Bryant hadn’t gotten just a little too far around on Jake McGee’s first-pitch fastball with two runners on base. He’s hit safely in 10 of his first 12 games to begin the season.
But Rockies manager Walt Weiss is not anxious, and although he might give the rookie a day off soon, Weiss doesn’t think Story has hit the wall. “To have shut down that lineup, that’s quite a feat”.
Price (2-0) gave up two runs and six hits, struck out nine and didn’t allow a walk. The right-hander is making his third start back after missing most of 2014 and all of 2015 after undergoing Tommy John surgery for the second time. In his last five games, the Colorado Rockies All-Star third baseman has four homers and 11 RBI.
“I did feel very comfortable with my tempo and how my pitches were moving”, Bettis said.
Astros 5, Tigers 4 • Jose Altuve led off the first with a solo home run and had three RBIs, and George Springer also hit a solo homer to help host Houston get its first series win this season. “He’s got really good stuff to go along with the makeup that he has”.
After the walk to Soler, Chatwood allowed a single to Javier Baez and a double to Lester, but no Cubs reached third base against the Rockies starter. “I’m able to recover really well, which is big for me”. I can’t remember an entire week going by in Chicago at this time of year with baseball weather as ideal as we had for this six-game homestand, even though it was a bit chilly for the three night games. “I didn’t execute one pitch and it ended up costing us”. After pitching two rehab games for High-a Modesto, Gray is expected to rejoin the team in Cincinnati Monday, but he’s not yet on the Rockies’ pitching schedule.
“We had a bad day, man, it’s not always going to be an oil painting and I really believe in the power of 24 hours”, said Maddon.
METS 6, INDIANS 0 Steven Matz (1-1) struck out a career-high nine and allowed three hits over seven innings for the visiting Mets.
Advertisement
Lester “closed my eyes and hit it pretty good” to lead off the Cubs’ sixth. He has never pitched against the Cardinals in the regular season but faced them when Boston won the 2013 World Series. If the score’s 1-0, Heyward’s one-out double puts the tying run in scoring position, instead of it being at the plate trailing 2-0.
