Tomorrow afternoon the Cubs (58-38) send Jon Lester (10-4, 2.89) to the hill to face Brewers’ (41-54) ace Junior Guerra (6-2, 3.06) in the rubber match of the three game set.
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Kirk Nieuwenhuis drove in the four other runs for the Brewers Saturday, on a solo homer off Lackey in the fourth and a three-run shot off newly acquired lefty Mike Montgomery – who was facing his first batter as a Cub with two out and two on in the eighth.
Lackey (7-7) went six innings for Chicago and allowed three runs on five hits and a pair of walks while striking out five. Offensively, Jonathan Villar leads Milwaukee with 103 hits, Ryan Braun has 45 RBI and Jonathan Lucroy has 13 home runs.
In his first start against the Cubs this year, Guerra picked up the win after throwing seven pretty good innings. “It was nearly too much”, Nathan said.
ORIOLES 5, INDIANS 2: Mark Trumbo hit his major league-leading 30th home run, Kevin Gausman pitched seven shutout innings and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians 5-2 on Saturday night in a duel between first-place teams. One pitch later he hit Ramon Flores in the chest on a bunt attempt and was replaced by Adam Warren, who surrendered a sacrifice bunt to pinch-hitter Jake Elmore.
“That’s a nice problem to have”, Maddon said. Left-handed hitter La Stella and Rizzo both got to Smith for clutch hits.
Twins 2, Red Sox 1: Kyle Gibson allowed two hits and one run over eight innings, and Brian Dozier homered to lead Minnesota. “We had some opportunities to add on runs in general, just to score runs and we didn’t capture those opportunities”, Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said. While slated to promote Nathan prior to Sunday’s matchup against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cubs have yet to announce a corresponding roster move.
Jonathan Lucroy then sparred with Lackey for 12 pitches before launching the last one over the wall in left for a 2-0 lead, in what turned into a 31-pitch inning for Lackey. The third baseman popped out in the bottom of the third. The Milwaukee Brewers have an ERA of 4.38 and have lost 10 of their last 11 games when allowing more than three runs.
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The Brewers looks to take their second consecutive series with the Cubs, who have still won 18 of the last 26 meetings between the National League Central rivals. The righty has struggled over his past six outings, going 0-4 with a 9.13 ERA.
