Anthony Rizzo homers in third straight game; Cubs acquire Haren, Hunter

The Chicago Cubs ended the month of July with a three-game winning streak and will have the opportunity to win this series from the Milwaukee Brewers later on this evening when Kyle Hendricks takes the mound opposite former Cub, Matt Garza.

First baseman Anthony Rizzo has been the muscle behind this positive streak having homered in three consecutive games. He launched the game-winning three-run bomb late in Thursday’s game to help lift his squad to the 5-2 win then drilled a towering solo homer in last night’s 4-1 victory with Jason Hammel on the mound.

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Shortstop Starlin Castro drove in a pair of RBI during the early portion of the game and Addison Russell drove in a run as well. Hammel held the Brewers to one earned run on four hits including the Ryan Braun homer in the first inning of the game but was able to settle down afterward.

While the rest of the division went ahead and made moves at least 48-hours ahead of the deadline, Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer were finally able to reel in a couple of arms from both the National League and American League.

They landed veteran right-hander, Dan Haren from the Miami Marlins in exchange for shortstop Elliott Soto and pitcher Ivan Pineyro. Haren is someone they attempted to acquire several years ago when he was a member of the Los Angeles Angels for struggling reliever, Carlos Marmol.

That trade just so happened to fall through which resulted in him leaving for the Washington Nationals shortly after. Marmol ended up with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Surely, Haren will help out the back end of this rotation and should pick up a start this upcoming Sunday in a game that has Kyle Lohse taking the mound for the Brewers. Hopefully, it’s in an attempt to complete the four-game sweep and help this team extend their winning streak.

And finally, Junior Lake was moved to the Baltimore Orioles for reliever Tommy Hunter. It’s a bit surprising that they opted to steer away from an extra bat to help out this offense along the way, but maybe the asking prices were too high.

Now that the trade deadline has passed, we’ll never know. With that being said, the postseason push has officially begun and this team is going to need to sharpen up at every position if they have any hopes of stealing the N.L. Central by some miracle or even clinching a Wild Card spot.

At this rate, anything will do. As long as the Chicago Cubs are in the playoffs.

Here’s more from around the league:

‘Chicago Cubs acquire Dan Haren from the Miami Marlins‘ – Cubbies Crib

‘Chicago Cubs relatively quiet as deadline comes and goes‘ – Cubbies Crib

‘San Francisco Giants: Scouting report on RHP Mike Leake‘ – Around The Foghorn

‘Cincinnati Reds fall 5-4 to Starling Marte, Pittsburgh Pirates‘ – Blog Red Machine

‘Padres add Marc Rzepczynski at deadline‘ – Friars On First

Next: Rizzo homers again to in 4-1 win over Brewers