Hendricks’ latest gem helps Cubs complete sweep of A’s

Jake Arrieta pitched eight innings of three-hit ball to get his first victory in over a month and the Chicago Cubs beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-0, on Saturday.

His 2.75 ERA is impressive, but nowhere near as impressive as the 1.56 he had on May 31 before going 3-5 with a 4.25 ERA in his past 10 starts.

Although Gray pitched fairly well, he was outdueled by Cubs right-hander Jake Arrieta, the 2015 National League Cy Young Award victor.

In the Cubs’ two-run third inning, Willson Contreras sent a flare to right field, going opposite field on a Sonny Gray curveball.

Zobrist went 2-for-5 and drove in two runs.

The Angels led 5-1 in the third inning and were clinging to a 6-4 lead when reliever Jose Valdez came on in the seventh and promptly walked three of the four batters he faced.

The A’s fell a season-high 14 games below.500 at 48-62, losing for the seventh time in their past eight games.

DODGERS 3, RED SOX 0 Newly promoted Ross Stripling and the Dodgers bullpen combined on a five-hitter, leading host Los Angeles over Boston. He struck out four and walked one on 108 pitches. Travis Wood pitched the ninth.

INDIANS 5, YANKEES 2: Corey Kluber put Cleveland’s rotation back on track, Andrew Miller earned a save against the team that traded him last weekend and the Indians beat NY.

Cubs second baseman Ben Zobrist hits a two-run single against the Oakland Athletics in the third inning Saturday at the Oakland Coliseum. The Indians had gone 1-4 in their previous five games, a stretch in which Cleveland starting pitchers produced a 15.58 ERA (30 earned runs in 17 1/3 innings). The Blue Jays made it 2-0 in the top of the fifth on Travis’ RBI single. He also had an RBI single in the fifth.

Archer struck out seven batters to give him 168 for the season, moving ahead of Detroit’s Justin Verlander for the American League lead. Manaea is 1-1 with a 3.55 ERA in two interleague starts. The 26-year-old tossed a seven-hit shutout Monday against Miami, striking out five and walking three in a dominant effort.

ROYALS 4, BLUE JAYS 2: At Kansas City, Mo., Danny Duffy outpitched Aaron Sanchez, stopping a 10-game winning streak for the Toronto ace.

“He overcame a slow start with some awful numbers and is now in a place where the expectation is that he’ll do some damage and drive in runs, and he has”. He allowed two runs on five hits.

CHICAGO – The White Sox broke a tie with runs in the seventh and eighth innings and made them stand up. Dexter Fowler lined a leadoff single, moved to second on Bryant’s walk and scored on Anthony Rizzo’s opposite-field double.

Christian Bethancourt hit a three-run double in the first inning and Yangervis Solarte drove in another three runs on a pair of singles to lead San Diego. Thompson allowed six runs in 4-1/3 innings to take the loss.

Brandon Phillips hit two home runs off Nova.

Homer Bailey had a rough outing in only his second start of the season for the Reds. Instead, he lasted only 4 innings in his shortest outing this year, giving up four runs and eight hits.

Jonathan Lucroy belted two home runs to support a relief corps that produced 5-1/3 strong innings in the Rangers’ victory. Lucroy hit his second home run in the eighth off Tony Sipp for his seventh career multihomer game and first this season. He has 18 home runs this season and 25 career multihomer games. Beltran left after the inning with a left quad contusion.

The Cubs added one run in the eighth to make it 3-0.

Braves starter Roberto Hernandez won his first major-league game in more than a year with the help of four homers by his teammates.

The Cubs have won six straight games are 15-6 since the All-Star break. Baez struck out in an eight-pitch at-bat against left-hander Sean Manaea with runners at first and third to end the second.

DETROIT – Miguel Cabrera drove in three runs with a double and a single to reach 74 RBIs and the streaking Tigers won for the 10th time in their last 11 games.

Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun hit two homers and tied a franchise record with seven RBIs and Keon Broxton had five hits in the Brewers’ victory.

J.D. Martinez threw Jay Bruce out at the plate on the final play of the game, enabling Detroit to hold off NY. The right-hander had scattered five hits, all singles, and allowed just two runs up to that point.

Nunez had been hitless in his last 16 at-bats, and was just 2 for 20 since being traded over by Minnesota in late July. Hendricks, who is facing Oakland for the first time, has dominated at home but is a pedestrian 2-6 with a 3.75 ERA in nine starts on the road.