Field Level Media
May 7, 2018
The Chicago Cubs slugged four home runs -- two by Ian Happ -- and snapped a season-worst five-game losing streak, defeating the visiting Miami Marlins 14-2 on Monday night at Wrigley Field.
Happ finished with five RBIs. Javier Baez, who also homered and had three RBIs, left the game due to a groin injury. Kris Bryant, who had the other Cubs homer, went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs.
The Cubs won despite short rest. Chicago lost Sunday night to the host St. Louis Cardinals as the Cubs allowed walk-off homers in consecutive games. The 14-inning series finale ended at 12:34 a.m. Monday. The Cubs then traveled back home to play the Marlins -- the start of a seven-game homestand.
Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks (3-2) helped make Monday a success, allowing just six hits, no walks and two runs in eight innings. He struck out three.
It was the longest outing by a Cubs pitcher this season. Hendricks also improved his career record against the Marlins to 3-1 with a 1.53 ERA.
Hendricks was supported by three-run homers by Happ and Baez and two-run blasts from Kris Bryant and Happ. Baez's homer gave him 32 RBIs, the top total in the majors.
Three of Chicago's homers were teed off on Marlins starter Jarlin Garcia (1-1), who allowed six hits and seven runs in four innings.
Garcia had allowed a combined total of just 10 hits as a starter this year, a franchise record for a pitcher in his initial four starts. He also had a 0.78 ERA in his first four career starts, the fifth-best ERA in the majors over a pitcher's initial four starts since 1980.
Despite those numbers, the Cubs jumped on Garcia immediately.
After Ben Zobrist drew a one-out walk in the first, Garcia missed his low-and-in spot, and Bryant pounced on a high 92 mph fastball, sending it to left for his fifth homer of the season.
Baez hit his three-run homer in the third, and Happ followed with a two-run shot in the fourth.
Miami's Miguel Rojas produced a run-scoring groundout in the fifth to cut the deficit to 7-1.
Addison Russell's two-run double in the bottom of the fifth quieted any notion of a comeback, and the Cubs poured it on from there.
--Field Level Media