Milwaukee Brewers vs Chicago Cubs Match Player Stats On Aug 03, 2019

Albert Almora Jr. hit a tiebreaking solo home run and drove in two runs to carry the Chicago Cubs to a 4-1 win over the visiting Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday afternoon.

Facing reliever Junior Guerra (3-3) in the seventh, Almora, who went 3-for-3, got down 0-2 in the count before getting it to 2-2.

On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, the center fielder lined his 12th homer to left field on Guerra's 94 mph fastball for a 2-1 Chicago lead.

In his third game since being acquired from the Detroit Tigers, Nicholas Castellanos went 2-for-4 with a double and a run, and Javier Baez tripled and added an eighth-inning RBI single in the nine-hit effort by the Cubs.

Rowan Wick (1-0) pitched a scoreless seventh for the victory, and closer Craig Kimbrel earned the save with a scoreless ninth.

Chicago's All-Star catcher, Willson Contreras, left the game in the seventh inning after grabbing the back of his right leg while running up the line as he lined out to center. Manager Joe Maddon said Contreras suffered a right hamstring strain and will undergo an MRI exam on Monday.

Chicago starter Cole Hamels (left oblique) came off the 10-day injured list and made his first start since June 28. The southpaw didn't allow more than one Brewers baserunner in any of his five innings, yielding four hits and fanning six.

Mike Moustakas recorded two hits, and Ryan Braun drove in Lorenzo Cain with a single for the Brewers, who dropped their third straight.

Milwaukee's Gio Gonzalez returned after missing his scheduled start in Oakland on Wednesday, and the lefty allowed one run and struck out four in 4 1/3 innings.

Baez sliced a 2-0 fastball into Wrigley Field's right-field corner for his fourth triple to open Chicago's second inning, then the speedy shortstop scored two batters later when Gonzalez uncorked a one-out wild pitch that didn't bounce too far away from catcher Manny Pina.

Milwaukee finally put a runner on second in the sixth inning against reliever David Phelps, and Braun tied the game at 1 by lacing an 0-2 pitch to center to score Cain, who reached base when his groundout was challenged, overturned and changed to a single.

Baez's single up the middle and Almora's sacrifice fly made it 4-1 in the eighth.

Kimbrel retired Braun, Moustakas and Orlando Arcia around a two-out double by Eric Thames for his ninth save in 11 chances.

--Field Level Media