Anthony Rizzo homered twice and Jason Hammel allowed only three hits in seven innings as Chicago defeated the Cincinnati Reds 9-0 in the finale of a four-game series on Sunday afternoon at Great American Ball Park.
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Chicago Cubs’ Addison Russell, center, celebrates in the dugout after hitting a solo home run off Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Dan Straily in the second inning of a baseball game, Saturday, April 23, 2016, in Cincinnati.
The Cincinnati Reds don’t play the Chicago Cubs again until June 27.
It was 8-0 when Simon exited after just 2 2/3 innings after allowing eight earned runs and two homers over 74 pitches.
The Cubs threatened to rally in the eighth when they had the bases loaded against Tony Cingrani, but Suarez scooped up Kris Bryant’s hard grounder for the final out.
Cincinnati erupted for a season-high 15 hits and a season-high 13 runs, including four homers.
NOTES: The Cubs started a season 14-5 or better for the third time in franchise history. A four-homer splurge ended Chicago’s domination of its NL Central rival.
Despite Saturday’s loss, Chicago outscored Cincinnati 38-14 in the four-game series, which started Thursday with Jake Arrieta’s no-hitter in a 16-0 win.
Elsewhere, the Washington Nationals blanked the Minnesota Twins 2-0, as the New York Yankees had Brett Gardner to thank for their 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, the Arizona Diamondbacks punished the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-1 and the Los Angeles Dodgers accounted for the Colorado Rockies 4-1.
Lackey retired the first nine batters he faced before Zack Cozart doubled leading off the fourth.
“Crazy game”, Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “That went away very quickly”. I thought Johnny was outstanding, and they had a seven-run inning. I feel good about the whole process. He looked fresh, looked fine.
Joey Votto added a two-run homer off Neil Ramirez in the seventh. “I knew there was quite a few [ground-ball outs] so pitching to contact was the goal today and I did a pretty good job of that”, he said. His stuff was good. “If you make a mistake against them, it’s tough to get it back. The two-strike hits, I have to take care of them in a different way”. There’s a way to avoid that. “You try not to put too much pressure on yourself to score runs”.
The Reds’ pitchers gave up seven hits and eight walks. The four homers were a season high for Cincinnati, as were the 13 runs.
The offensive outburst made a victor of Cincinnati reliever Blake Wood (2-0), who threw 1.1 scoreless, hitless innings of relief with two walks. Reds manager Bryan Price will need a quality start from Straily as the bullpen has been thrust into action early and often against the Cubs.
“That’s as well as he can throw a baseball”, Maddon said. “But if we come back and win the series tomorrow, it will be OK”.
The Chicago White Sox defeated the Texas Rangers 4-3 after Jose Abreu’s walk-off single in the 11th inning, the Cleveland Indians routed the Detroit Tigers 10-1 and the Toronto Blue Jays responded to Friday’s loss to the Oakland Athletics with a 9-3 victory as Troy Tulowitzki enjoyed his first multi-homer game since joining past year.
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Just like that, right-hander John Lackey lost his bid for a 4-0 start, the Cubs no longer had the best record in baseball, and everyone was reminded again that winning big-league games is never as easy as the hottest teams can make it look. The last time the Cubs had a pair of pitchers win their first four starts was 1918 with Hippo Vaughn and Phil Douglas.
