Arrieta, Bryant Cruise In Cubs Win, Braves Beat Cardinals

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Published on August 14 2017 6:17 am
Last Updated on August 14 2017 7:18 am

By ESPN

Jake Arrieta is cruising along quite nicely. Same for Kris Bryant.

Arrieta won consecutive starts for the first time since early April, Javier Baez and Ian Happ hit consecutive home runs in the eighth inning and the Chicago Cubs beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-2 on Sunday.

Bryant put the Cubs ahead when he scored from second on a wild pitch from Zack Godley in the first inning on strike three to Victor Caratini. The reigning NL MVP added his 21st homer in the ninth inning, reaching for the 13th time in 15 plate appearances during the three-game series.

"It's nice to see when you work on something and when it comes to fruition in games, you feel good about it," Bryant said.

A day after falling into a virtual tie with St. Louis for the NL Central lead, Chicago grabbed the rubber game of its weekend series in Arizona to take a one-game lead over the second-place Cardinals. St. Louis lost 6-3 to Atlanta, ending an eight-game winning streak.

"I would bet they are," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said when asked if his team was aware of the division standings. "None of this surprises. We're out West, (the Cardinals) are back home. You've got to get through these difficult moments in the schedule. ... It's going to be a real interesting finish to the Central this year."

Paul Goldschmidt hit his 28th homer in the ninth, but Arizona, bidding for an NL wild card, lost for the sixth time in eight games.

Arrieta (12-8) allowed one run and three hits in six innings. Coming off a 5-3 win over San Francisco, Arrieta had not won back-to-back starts since victories at St. Louis and Miami in his first two outings this season.

"I want to come out and establish good sink early in the ballgame and try and force early contact," Arrieta said. "And try and get through the third or fourth inning with 40 pitches. And if I'm able to get through the first time through the order with those established, my job becomes a lot easier."

Godley (5-5) had three wild pitches and four walks in 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs and four hits while striking out eight. He struck out four in the first inning, the first Diamondbacks pitcher to fan four in a frame since Oliver Perez in September 2014.

Baez's three-run homer off Jake Barrett, a drive into the second deck in left, came after an intentional walk to Jason Heyward and put the Cubs ahead 5-1. Happ, pinch-hitting for Carl Edwards Jr., homered three pitches later.

"Traditionally Baez doesn't have a tremendous amount of success when you are comparing left, right splits. I just liked the matchup," Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. "All indications were pointing to Jake's stuff having a better conclusion than it did."


Braves 6, Cardinals 3

Brandon Phillips knows what to expect from Cardinals fans.

"Oh yeah, it's nice for Boo Phillips to come back to St. Louis, man," Phillips said. "That's the name they really gave me. I love playing here. The fans here are great."

Phillips hit a two-run homer to back R.A. Dickey, and the Atlanta Braves stopped the Cardinals' season-high, eight-game winning streak with a 6-3 victory Sunday.

Phillips connected in the fifth for his 10th home run this season and the 17th of his career against St. Louis. Phillips is still booed by Cardinals fans for his part of a bench-clearing brawl when he played for Cincinnati in 2010.

"I love when they boo me," he said. "It makes me step up my game a little more and before they started booing me I didn't play that good in St. Louis. But ever since that first day they started booing me, that's when I started playing good here, so that's something the fans need to know."

Dickey (8-7) allowed one run and seven hits in seven innings. The 42-year-old knuckleballer has given up one or no earned runs in eight of 23 starts.

"I was able to attack the strike zone early," Dickey said. "The first two times through the lineup they gave me strike one a lot with my fastball. I knew that once I got through that lineup once by stealing strikes that they were going to turn a little bit more aggressive and they did."

Atlanta stopped a five-game losing streak, beat the Cardinals for the first time in six meetings this year and avoided getting swept in the season series for the first time.

"They had a plan against me," Dickey said. "I knew what it was early and we were able to come up with our own plan to counteract that."

Arodys Vizcaino pitched a perfect ninth for his first save since Aug. 5 and his sixth in eight tries.

Michael Wacha (9-5) gave up four runs and five hits in eight innings, just the second time in 10 starts he has allowed four or more earned runs.

"Our offense showed some fight," Wacha said. "We were right back in it, a hit away from taking the lead or tying it up."

Atlanta loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, when Danny Santana had an RBI single and Ozzie Albies followed with a sacrifice fly.

Nick Markakis made it 5-0 with an RBI grounder in the seventh. Kolten Wong tripled and scored in the bottom half and added an RBI single in the eighth, when Paul DeJong hit his team-high 18th homer off, a drive off Jim Johnson.

"I'm getting good pitches to hit and not missing them," DeJong said. "The Braves attacked me a little bit, so I was ready to hit looking in my zone early in the count for sure."

Ender Inciarte had three singles, scored twice and stole his 15th base. He is hitting .337 (31 for 92) against St. Louis.


Royals 14, White Sox 6

Whit Merrifield had a chance to hit for the cycle. He settled for a really fun day.

Merrifield hit a three-run homer and drove in a career-high five runs, and the Kansas City Royals pounded the Chicago White Sox 14-6 on Sunday.

Drew Butera had four of Kansas City's 16 hits, helping the Royals climb back over .500 at 59-58. Jorge Bonifacio hit his 15th homer, and Lorenzo Cain had two hits and two RBI.

Merrifield needed a double for the cycle when he came to the plate with the bases loaded in the eighth inning. But he popped out on a shallow foul ball to right fielder Avisail Garcia.

"With the game like it was, it (the cycle) was on my mind," Merrifield said. "Hit a ball in the gap. I made a pretty poor swing, on a slider."

Merrifield still finished with three hits. The 28-year-old second baseman is batting .296 with 14 homers and 56 RBI.

"He's worked himself into a very nice major league player," manager Ned Yost said. "He has a little power and plays solid defense."

Jason Vargas (14-6) worked six innings to match his career high for wins set in 2012 with Seattle. The left-hander allowed three runs and six hits, struck out seven and walked two.

The Royals won the last two games of the weekend set after dropping five in a row and 10 of 12. They remain in the mix for the second AL wild card.

"We were kind of spinning our wheels for while trying to gain some momentum," Yost said. "It's hard to get, but easy to stop."

Tim Anderson hit a two-run homer for AL-worst Chicago, and Garcia added a two-run double.

White Sox left-hander Derek Holland (6-12) lasted just two-plus innings in his shortest start of the year. He was charged with seven runs and seven hits.

"I don't even know where to begin," Holland said. "Today was just, in my eyes, embarrassing."

Kansas City grabbed control with four runs in the second and four more in the third. Bonifacio led off the third with a drive to left and Merrifield made it 8-0 when he went deep against Mike Pelfrey.

"It does seem to come in bunches at times," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said.

Merrifield added a two-run triple in the sixth, making it 12-3.


Sunday, August 13 Scoreboard

San Francisco 4, Washington 2

Toronto 7, Pittsburgh 1

Cleveland 4, Tampa Bay 3

Minnesota 6, Detroit 4

Miami 5, Colorado 3

New York Mmets 6, Philadelphia 2

Kansas City 14, Chicago White Sox 6

Milwaukee 7, Cincinnati 4

Atlanta 6, St. Louis 3

Houston 2, Texas 1

Oakland 9, Baltimore 3

Los Angeles Angels 6, San Diego 4

Chicago Cubs 7, Arizona 2

Washington 6, San Francisco 2 (F/11)

Boston 3, New York Yankees 2 (F/10)


Monday,  August 14 Schedule (All Times Central)

Cleveland at Boston, 5:10 p.m.

New York Mets at New York Yankees, 6 p.m.

Tampa bay at Toronto, 6:07 p.m.

San Francisco at Miami, 6:10 p.m.

Detroit at Texas, 7:05 p.m.

Cincinnati at Chicago Cubs, 7:05 p.m.

Atlanta at Colorado, 7:40 p.m.

Houston at Arizona, 8:40 p.m.

Kansas City at Oakland, 9:05 p.m.

Baltimore at Seattle, 9:10 p.m.

Philadelphia at San Diego, 9:10 p.m.