But Lester left a 1-2 fastball over the plate to Pence, who hit his second home run in as many days. Other than that, he was basically flawless as the Cubs move their record to 87-47. Dexter Fowler moved him over on a ideal sacrifice bunt, but Rizzo overran second base and was thrown out trying to get back.
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No major league team was better than the San Francisco Giants at the All-Star break. It was the Giants’ first in 40 at-bats since the third inning of Thursday’s loss at Wrigley Field.
In the fifth, prospective NL MVP Kris Bryant made a diving grab on a diving Brandon Crawford liner, to the third baseman’s right.
The 32-year-old southpaw has 17 starts with one or fewer earned runs this season. Trumbo smacked his major league-leading 41st home run, and Davis and Manny Machado added their 33rd for the Birds.
His only previous start against San Francisco at Wrigley Field came on August 9, 2015, when he allowed four hits in 7 2/3 scoreless innings in a 2-0 Cubs win. “Every play, every miscue, every hit, no matter what it was, every little thing has mattered in these three games so far”. “Heart of the order up, man on second, it’s a different game”.
Carlos Beltran also homered in the fourth, his 26th overall and fourth since coming to the Rangers from the New York Yankees at the August 1 trade deadline.
The Cardinals have lost seven of 11.
Like a lot of teams, the Nationals came out running on Syndergaard (12-8), swiping four bases in the early innings.
“(The pitch) was terrible,” Lester said. He scored on a single by Eduardo Nunez.
Boston’s Junichi Tazawa threw a scoreless inning of relief for the Red Sox.
Carrasco (10-7) had the 10th double-digit strikeout game of his career and the third this season.
Gausman (7-10) allowed two hits and two walks over six innings to win his fourth straight start.
Ross gave the Cubs the lead in the third with an RBI double.
Royals 5, Tigers 2 • Eric Hosmer hit his 20th homer and Yordano Venutura pitched six strong innings for host Kansas City. Davis, who just came off the disabled list and had not pitched since July 22, blew his third save in 24 chances.
In the seventh, Cabrera hit a 439-foot shot off Peter Moylan. He slipped a ground ball under the glove of second baseman Ben Zobrist and hustled for a double when he saw the Cubs outfielders, perhaps stiff from inactivity, were slow to react.
In the field: Russell made an incredible play to momentarily keep Crawford from reaching third in the sixth inning, coming out of nowhere to knock down a wayward throw. He walked one and struck out four. Logan Morrison also went deep for the Rays.
Key Moment: Since Lester was thoroughly dominant, and the Cubs’ scoring inning was short and fairly pedestrian, I’ll choose the afternoon’s two best defensive plays as the key moments. The Cubs scored just one run with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth, then left the bases loaded in the seventh.
Raisel Iglesias (1-1) gave up a walk in the ninth.
AL West-leading Texas is 13-2 against the Astros this season and 37-19 against the division.
Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis delivered RBI doubles during a four-run ninth that lifts Atlanta past Philadelphia 8-4. Welington Castillo had a three-run double and Lamb followed with his 27th homer to make it 6-0.
Bumgarner (14-8) allowed two runs and five hits in his fourth win in his past five starts.
Nick Hundley’s grand slam was part of a seven-run eighth that sent Colorado to a 14-7 win against Arizona.
Nolan Arenado and Carlos Gonzalez each had two hits for the Rockies.
Washington Nationals hurler Max Scherzer and Cubs breakout star Kyle Hendricks – who leads Major League Baseball in ERA – are among the favorites right now, while some still feel Clayton Kershaw deserves consideration, despite missing two months with a herniated disk in his back, for his historic start to the season.
Evan Gattis had three hits for Houston, including a solo homer.
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Descalso followed with the third pinch-hit homer of his career to finish the rally.
