Arismendy Alcantara homered and drove in a pair of runs as right-hander Jake Arrieta tossed six innings of one-run ball, leading the Chicago Cubs to a 7-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.
Arrieta (8-5, 2.81 ERA) allowed five hits, walking two and striking out four in the contest. Entering play Tuesday night, the right-hander was 3-1 with a 1.86 earned run average at Wrigley Field this year, as opposed to his 4-4 mark with a 3.74 ERA away from the Friendly Confines. Wesley Wright, Brian Schlitter and Kyuji Fujikawa all pitched scoreless innings of work in relief to close out the contest.
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Chicago (63-76) pounded on Milwaukee (73-65), which has now lost seven straight contests. The Cubs opened the scoring early on when Luis Valbuena singled, scoring Javier Baez to make it 1-0. An RBI single by Jorge Soler and a pair of fielding errors led to three more runs in the frame, giving the home team an early 4-0 advantage.
An RBI single by Ryan Braun in the fourth accounted for the only Brewers run of the contest as starter Yovani Gallardo (8-8, 3.43 ERA) struggled. The right-hander lasted just five innings, allowing seven runs – five earned – on eight hits, walking two and striking out four.
Welington Castillo doubled in the fifth to make it 5-1 and the two-run blast by Alcantara later that inning added two more insurance runs that proved unnecessary.
Chicago tallied just seven hits in the win and were led by Chris Coghlan and Valbuena, each of whom had two hits apiece.
The Cubs will look to complete the series sweep on Wednesday behind right-hander Kyle Hendricks, who will be opposed by former Cub Matt Garza. First pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m. CT at Wrigley Field.