Chicago Cubs do just enough to end losing streak with 5-4 win

After dropping last night’s series opener in Miami, the Chicago Cubs bounced back with a nail-biting win of their own to end a four-game losing streak. Kyle Hendricks had an early 4-0 lead but watched that quickly vanish moments later.

Cubs win! Cubs win! That’s something we have been waiting to hear ever since the St. Louis Cardinals took game one of that three-game set in which the Chicago Cubs (48-24) were swept by their division rival.

An interesting note, tonight’s game last a little over three hours and while it appeared to be close, the Miami Marlins (39-35) were only able to string two hits compared to Chicago’s eight.

Things got out of hand right off the bat when first baseman Kris Bryant turned on the first pitch of his at-bat and drove it out to deep left field for his 18th home run of the season.

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Bryant’s home run gave Kyle Hendricks an early 1-0 lead and the Cubs were not done. Second baseman Ben Zobrist singled on a pitch to right field and would come around to score on a Willson Contreras two-run homer to right field.

Contreras has already hit three home runs after making his big league debut with the major league club this past weekend against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He later came through with the go-ahead RBI with a single to right fielder Giancarlo Stanton which made it 5-4 in the seventh inning.

Now back to the first inning of the ballgame.

Hendricks (5-6, 2.76 ERA) left the game with the same record and earned run average despite the Marlins charging back and erasing that four-run lead. Miami worked three two-out walks following Addison Russell‘s error to open up the home half of the frame.

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In his previous outing, Kyle recorded a career high 12 strikeouts and ended tonight’s game with a 5/4 K/BB ratio through five innings of work. The biggest for Miami came when former Chicago Cubs prospect, Justin Bour, launched a grand slam to straight away center field, over the head of Albert Almora.

Chicago ended up with six hits in the opening frame but struggled against Tom Koehler (6-6, 4.07 ERA) who was thought to be done after the nightmarish inning.

Koehler limited the Cubs to just one hit, two walks, and six strikeouts in five extra innings of work following that wild opening frame. And then you have Javier Baez who channeled his inner Derek Jeter by leaping into the stand in order to record an out in the fourth inning.