Cubs 9, Diamondbacks 2
Mike Olt hit a three-run homer and Jason Hammel pitched seven strong innings as host Chicago defeated Arizona for the second straight night.
Nate Schierholtz and Justin Ruggiano each drove in two runs for the Cubs, who have won three of their last four games. Luis Valbuena scored three times and went 2-for-4 with an RBI and Starlin Castro and Ruggiano also had two hits.
Hammel (3-1) gave up one run and four hits and didn’t walk anyone in his fourth consecutive solid outing. Chicago posted a season-high total for runs scored while sending the Diamondbacks to their fourth straight loss and 10th in 11 games.
Valbuena hit a one-out double in the third against Brandon McCarthy (0-4) and eventually scored on Schierholtz’s single to center. The same duo combined for the first run of a four-run fifth as Valbuena reached on a single and ended up scoring on a sacrifice fly by Schierholtz.
Olt came up later in the fifth and slammed a 3-1 pitch over the right-center field fence to make it 5-0. Tuffy Gosewisch hit his first major-league homer in the sixth to get Arizona on the board before the Cubs tacked on four eighth-inning runs on Valbuena’s bases-loaded walk, Ruggiano’s two-run single and Anthony Rizzo’s infield single.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Arizona OFs Mark Trumbo (foot) and A.J. Pollock (neck) were both held out of the lineup. … Chicago has 20 hits in the first two games while outscoring the Diamondbacks 14-3. … McCarthy allowed five runs – only one was earned due to an error by 2B Martin Prado in the fifth – and seven hits in five innings.