Hendricks, Cubs shut down Diamondbacks
Kyle Hendricks pitched seven scoreless innings, striking out 11, as the Chicago Cubs snapped the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks' four-game winning streak with a 5-1 win on a cold, blustery Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field.
Hendricks (1-3) allowed three hits and walked two. His strikeout total was one more than he had in his first three starts combined, and it also was the right-hander's best since whiffing 12 St. Louis Cardinals on Aug. 13, 2016.
Steve Cishek pitched the eighth to run the Cubs' scoreless innings streak to 31 before the Diamondbacks rallied off Brad Brach in the ninth. David Peralta and Adam Jones opened with singles, and Ketel Marte hit a one-out RBI double to chase Brach.
The scoreless innings streak was the longest one for Chicago since a 31-inning run from July 4-8, 1976, according to STATS.
Pedro Strop came in to retire the final two batters for his second save as Chicago won its fourth consecutive game.
The wind was blowing straight in from center field at 26 mph at the start of the game. Before the first pitch, a gust blew a TV monitor out of the Arizona Diamondbacks television booth into the seats below.
That wind played a factor early.
Arizona starter Merrill Kelly (1-2) worked around two walks in a 33-pitch first inning and was almost out of no-out, bases-loaded jam in the second when Kris Bryant hit what normally would have been a lazy fly behind second base. But the wind took over and second baseman Wilmer Flores stumbled while chasing the ball, which fell into shallow right field for a two-run double.
Anthony Rizzo sliced a triple into the left-field corner to drive in a run for a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning.
Kelly struggled with his command through 3 2/3 innings, throwing 109 pitches. He yielded three runs and six hits, walking seven and striking out five. The seven walks were the most by a Diamondbacks pitcher since Wade Miley issued the same number against the Colorado Rockies on April 27, 2013.
Matt Koch pitched 4 1/3 innings of relief for Arizona, giving up two runs and two hits, walking two and striking out one.
Cubs catcher Willson Contreras had two hits -- a double and a run-scoring bloop single to make it 5-0 in the sixth after Bryant had scored from third on a wild pitch during his at-bat.
--Field Level Media
