Morning Marquee: Chicago Cubs extend win streak to six games

The young guns on the North Side of Chicago did it again as the Cubs were able to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates by the score of 4-1 at Wrigley Field Saturday afternoon.

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Skipper Joe Maddon sent southpaw Jon Lester to the mound, a man who has some success this month after a slow start to the season. Since his last loss against the San Diego Padres at home in late April, Lester is currently riding a four-game win streak in May, dropping his ERA from 6.23 to 3.70 after yesterday’s start.

Lester held the Bucs to just one earned run on nine hits with a 1.36 WHIP and a 7/1 K/BB ratio while recording his 1,500th career strikeout in the top of the fourth. Pittsburgh had runners on second and third base with Sean Rodriguez at the plate until Lester was able to get a called third strike during a 3-2 count at-bat by Rodriguez.

The offense, on the other hand, wasn’t as explosive as it has been over the past week. Chicago received four runs, two from Starlin Castro, one from the red-hot Anthony Rizzo, and the fourth on a wild pitch with Kris Bryant in the batters box which allowed Addison Russell to score.

Russell put himself in scoring position after stealing his second base of the season and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Chris Stewart.

Former fourth starter Travis Wood entered the game in the ninth inning after he was recently demoted to the bullpen, and managed to pick up his first career save. Wood sat down all three batters in order.

With yesterday’s win, the Chicago Cubs find themselves just three games behind the first place St. Louis Cardinals, who have dropped two straight games to the Detroit Tigers. They were hammered by the Tigers on Friday, losing by six runs behind Miguel Cabrera‘s seventh inning bomb.

Cabrera has been on a hot streak over the last week and continued to take pitchers deep Saturday afternoon. Detroit was able to pick up a tight 4-3 victory over the first-place Cardinals behind another moonshot from Cabrera in the top half of the first inning. It just so happens to be career No. 400, tying Adrian Beltre, who recorded his 400th on Friday.

Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton was at it again as well, hitting another deep home run that cleared the center field wall. Stanton’s home run came in the bottom of the third inning with his team trailing 5-1 and was caught by a bare handed fan who was sitting in the center field bleachers.

The home run was estimated at 478 ft., the fourth in six days that have traveled at least 465 ft. a piece. That’s some ridiculous power which is only going to increase as time goes on, so Rizzo has some work to do if he wants to compete for N.L. MVP honors.

Here’s more from around the league:

‘Travis Wood moves to bullpen; Wada to start? ‘ – CubbiesCrib

‘Stanton hits 478-foot HR; fan barehands it‘ – MLB.com

‘Doug Fister out indefinitely for Nats‘ – ESPN.com

‘Mat Latos leaves game after being hit in leg by liner‘ – ESPN.com

‘300 wins will be tall task for Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw‘ – CallToThePen

Next: Cubs Run Winning Streak To Six Games

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