Cubs 5, Brewers 2
Casey Coleman earned his first win since May 19 and Geovany Soto homered twice among five RBIs as the Chicago Cubs downed the visiting Milwaukee Brewers 5-2 on Monday.
The loss, combined with St. Louis’ 4-3 victory over Philadelphia, leaves the Brewers’ magic number at four and trims their lead in the National League Central to 5½ games.
Coleman (3-8) entered with a 7.08 ERA and proceeded to strike out a career-high eight and allowed two hits in six innings. The 24-year-old righthander’s lone blemish came in the third, when Jerry Hairston Jr. reached him for a solo homer.
Coleman got all the support he would need from his batterymate. Soto got the lead right back following a walk to Carlos Pena by becoming the first Cubs batter this year to reach Waveland Avenue beyond the left field stands.
Soto struck again in the fourth with an RBI single off Chris Narveson (10-8) and put the game away with his 17th homer - another two-run blast - in the sixth when he took an inside fastball from Marco Estrada and sent it into the second row.
Milwaukee's Ryan Braun went 0-for-4 but still leads New York's Jose Reyes in the NL batting race .333-.331.