The reigning National League Cy Young victor was also trying to reach 10 wins faster than anyone in team history since Grover Alexander in 1920.
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Jake Arrieta hadn’t lost a game in a while. “We did the rope-a-dope, making him throw so many pitches, even if majority were strikeouts”, Hale said. Arrieta did lose to the New York Mets in the NL championship series last season. He only made it through 3.1 innings that day and gave up seven runs while walking two batters and striking out three.
Carlos Correa lined a walk-off single to right field with one out in the 12th inning as Houston claimed the victory over Oakland.
For the Cubs, this was their second straight loss in a game started by Arrieta, a streak that hasn’t happened since May 2-7, 2015.
Arrieta’s winning streak ended at 20 straight decisions. “Obviously, Jake is human, too”.
Since that loss, Arrieta seemed unstoppable.
Pirates left-hander Jeff Locke (5-3) allowed three runs on seven hits over seven innings and has won a career-best four starts in a row.
Corbin gave seven innings of work, only giving up two runs on five hits, to go along with five strikeouts. The game planning is really good, the stuff under the hood (meetings on hitters) that nobody ever sees.
“Everybody knows about his story there and it’s always tough to go out there and face a guy like that”, Corbin said of Arrieta. Howard, batting. 151 this season, was limited to pinch-hit appearances in the first five games this month.
After Edwin Escobar (0-2) retired the leadoff hitter, Anthony Rizzo popped the ball up to shallow left field.
Chicago (38-15) used a five-run outburst in the eighth to topple Arizona, 6-0, improving to 21-7 at home. The big blow was a two-run double by Yasmany Tomas in the second inning on what appeared to be a almost unhittable pitch.
Everyone except Javier Baez, who got a ball up in the jetstream heading to right field for a solo homer in the sixth [VIDEO], his fourth long ball of the season.
But he also drove in the Cubs’ first run with an RBI double in the second, cutting their deficit to 2-1.
San Jose Sharks players celebrate after Joonas Donskoi scored the winning goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins during overtime of Game 3 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals in San Jose, Calif., June 4, 2016. When Goldschmidt was awarded first, Cahill threw his arms up in disgust and Maddon came out to argue.
Catcher Miguel Montero agreed that “it was a heck of a run” by Arrieta and added: “Hopefully we start a new one coming up next start”. He stayed down for a few minutes while being tended to but remained in the game…. But Arizona lost for the eighth time in 11 games.
Cubs: LHP Jon Lester (6-3, 2.29) looks to remain unbeaten against Philadelphia when the Cubs start a nine-game trip against LHP Adam Morgan (1-4, 7.07) and the Phillies.
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The Cubs (39-15) fell short of setting a major league record Tuesday when they failed to win a 24th consecutive game with Arrieta starting, losing 5-0 to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
