Cubs hammer out 8-1 win over Phillies
PHILADELPHIA -- Kris Bryant and Ben Zobrist blasted long home runs in the sixth inning and the Chicago Cubs pulled away from the Philadelphia Phillies for an 8-1 victory on Wednesday in Citizens Bank Park.
Phillies starter Vince Velasquez, whose fastball is usually in the mid-90s, threw two pitchers topping out at 87 mph to start the game and left with "biceps soreness" in his right arm.
With the Cubs leading 1-0, Phillies reliever Andrew Bailey served up two 400-plus foot home runs in the sixth.
The first came off the bat of Bryant with Jason Heyward on base after a leadoff single. The Cubs third baseman belted Bailey's 2-2 fastball 432 feet into the left field seats for his 14th home run of the season.
Two batters later, Ben Zobrist ripped a 2-1 cutter 413 feet in right center to put the Cubs ahead 4-0.
The way Cubs starter John Lackey was throwing, that was more than plenty of runs for Chicago.
The right-hander held the Phillies to three hits through seven shutout innings with eight strikeouts and no walks.
Lackey retired 16 straight Phillies hitters after a Cody Asche single with two outs in the second.
That number reached 19 straight Phillies retired after an inning of shutdown relief from Pedro Strop. Clayton Richard walked Tommy Joseph to lead off the ninth, the Phillies' first base runner since Asche's single, and he later scored on a groundout by Cesar Hernandez.
Philadelphia (29-31) nearly got to Lackey in the first inning. Odubel Herrera and Hernandez led off with back-to-back singles, with Herrera advancing to third on Hernandez's hit.
But Freddy Galvis flied out to left fielder Albert Almora Jr., who made his first major league start, and Almora showed off his arm, cutting down Herrera at the plate for the double play.
The Cubs (41-17), who totaled 13 hits, scored four runs in the eighth against Phillies reliever Colton Murray.
Almora Jr. registered his first big league hit, a RBI single to make it 6-0. Javier Baez, who was 4-for-4 with three RBIs, made it 8-0 with a two-run single.
Brett Oberholtzer came on in relief of Velasquez after just one batter had been retired in the first inning and worked four innings, allowing one unearned run before giving way to Bailey with one out in the fifth.
Oberholtzer lasted four innings, allowing one unearned run before giving way to Bailey with one out in the fifth inning and the Phillies trailing 1-0.
NOTES: First pitch in Wednesday's Phillies-Cubs game was delayed briefly by rain. ... Phillies 1B Ryan Howard, who is now the assumed backup to Tommy Joseph, started for the second straight game. ... Chicago RHP John Lackey pitched in his 400th career game Wednesday. His next start will be his 400th career start. ... With 2012 first-round pick OF Albert Almora Jr. debuting for Chicago on Tuesday, the Cubs have now had their first-round selections from the 2011 (Javier Baez), 2012, 2013 (Kris Bryant) and 2014 (Kyle Schwarber) drafts play this season. ... The Phillies will pick first in Thursday night's MLB draft for the second time in franchise history.