Cubs place Hammel on bereavement list, recall Grimm

The 2016 Cubs are a constant source of wonder and amazement.

On Wednesday, the Cubs benefited from an erratic ninth by Marlins closer A.J. Ramos, who walked three in the inning.

But those were the orders that came from the dugout, Ramos followed them and the ensuing result was an epic meltdown loss to the Chicago Cubs.

Matt Szczur scored on A.J. Ramos’ wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning, capping a three-run rally that gave the Cubs a 5-4 victory and a three-game sweep of the Miami Marlins on Wednesday at Wrigley Field. Chicago closed the first half with a win July 10 at Pittsburgh, which sent a exhausted club into the All-Star break on a positive note, even with a worrisome 7-15 stretch fresh in their minds. Tom Koehler tossed six strong innings to help the Marlins take a 4-1 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth.

John Lackey got into first-inning trouble. Guerra had won four of his last five starts.

TWINS 13, INDIANS 5 Joe Mauer had four hits and four RBI, Brian Dozier hit a three-run home run and visiting Minnesota continued its mastery over Cleveland.

The Cubs tied the game in the sixth. Rodney escaped the eighth after allowing just one run, and then that disaster happened in the ninth. Ben Zobrist walked Ben Zobrist, bringing Javier Baez home.

Unfortunately, Lackey got himself in trouble by hitting Derek Dietrich.

Baltimore Orioles’ Pedro Alvarez swings on a solo home run against the Texas Rangers during the seventh inning of a baseball in Baltimore, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016. That made it 3-1.

Trevor Bauer (7-5) gave up eight runs – seven earned – in 2 2/3 innings. Oh, and two doubles. But I couldn’t get it in the zone where I wanted to. “But I had to do that, and my job was to get Zobrist out right there, and I just couldn’t execute”. Yelich then homered to right in the next inning, giving the Marlins a 4-1 lead.

Chad Green and Matz (8-8) both struggled at the start, and Luis Severino (1-6) came out of the bullpen with 4 1/3 innings of one-hit relief.

Cubs: RHP Jason Hammel was placed on the bereavement list and RHP Justin Grimm was recalled from Triple-A Iowa. Dioner Navarro grounded out to second to end the game.

Dee Gordon got his bat going in the loss with a pair of hits.

Yelich, who was 3 for 4, has hit safely in all 12 career games he has played at Wrigley Field. Baez singled him to third and Szczur walked to load the bases. Fowler hit a fly to right, and Giancarlo Stanton seemed to have a bit of trouble with it in the sun.

If the Miami Marlins hope to return to the postseason this year for the first time in more than a decade, a wild series finale against the Chicago Cubs could be a good teaching tool.

Playing. 684 ball will win you a lot of divisions.

But Bryant struck out for the second out – or did he? Anthony Rizzo then was intentionally walked to load the bases again.

That brought up Contreras.

Hammel, 33, is 11-5 with a 3.07 ERA (41 ER/120.1 IP) in 21 starts with the Cubs this season. Whalen put himself in a 4-0 hole on Matt Joyce’s 11th homer, a three-run shot, and a run that scored on a wild pitch.

I can’t say enough about this team. They really do never give up. They are 25 games over. 500 for the first time since June 29, the day they completed a sweep of the Reds in Cincinnati. Hammel is expected to make his next scheduled start on Tuesday. NOTES: Cubs fans plus a large contingent of Japanese media were disappointed that Suzuki missed a chance to collect two hits and reach 3,000 for his career while in Chicago.

Not that it mattered by the time the Cubs boarded their charter Wednesday night for this weekend’s series in Oakland – with nobody in apparent need of a haircut.