Chicago Cubs blanked for second straight day; fall 5-0 to Giants

San Francisco right-hander Tim Lincecum tossed five no-hit, albeit wild innings in Wednesday’s series finale against the Chicago Cubs, sending Ricky Renteria’s club to a 5-0 loss in which it mustered just two base hits against Giants pitchers.

The ballgame remained in reach for Chicago until the bottom of the seventh, when the wheels came off defensively. Trailing 2-0,with two outs in the inning and a runner on second, Buster Posey hit a grounder to Mike Olt at third. The ground ball reached Olt on a short-hop and he wasn’t able to handle it, allowing Gregor Blanco to score from second. Later in the inning, a two-run double off the bat of Hector Sanchez added two final insurance runs to seal the Cubs’ fate.

Chicago (19-32) got another strong appearance from its starting pitcher in the finale, as Edwin Jackson (3-5) tossed pitched into the sixth and was charged with two earned runs on four hits, while notching nine strikeouts and walking two. Both of the runs scored after he departed the contest in the sixth for reliever James Russell.

As mentioned, sis counterpart, Lincecum, pitched five no-hit innings for the Giants (34-19), but was wild, hitting one batter and walking four, while striking out five. After hitting 96 pitches, 52 of which were out of the strike zone, the right-hander was pulled in favor of a pinch hitter.

The story of the game once again for Chicago was its inability to hit with runners in scoring position, as the club went 0-for-9 on the afternoon. The only Cubs’ hitters to manage hits against the Giants were catcher John Baker and first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

Right-hander Justin Grimm pitched the seventh, during which San Francisco broke the game open, but none of the three runs he allowed were earned due to the Olt error.