Cubs 5, Astros 1
Marlon Byrd and Geovany Soto homered to help Randy Wells earn his first win since early April as the Chicago Cubs cruised past the visiting Houston Astros 5-1 Saturday afternoon.
Wells (2-3) threw six strong innings, limiting the Astros to a run on six hits. The veteran righty had gone 0-3 over his previous nine starts since beating Arizona 4-1 back on April 4.
Byrd's solo blast to deep center field put Chicago up in the second inning, and Soto extended the lead with a solo shot to left field in the fifth.
After a Carlos Lee single cut the deficit in the top of the sixth, the Cubs tacked on three more runs in the eighth on a Starlin Castro RBI single and a Soto run-scoring hit. The fifth run came around on Houston third baseman Chris Johnson's second error of the game.
Houston starter Wandy Rodriguez (6-7) pitched well in defeat, surrendering two runs on just three hits in seven innings. He walked one and struck out seven while falling to 0-3 in his last four outings.