Giants LF Aoki hit in head by pitch

The Giants did not have a chance almost so ripe against Jake Arrieta, who fired 72/3 shutout innings and has a 1.23 ERA over his last 10 starts. Rondon came in with a runner on second and retired the final two batters before working the ninth for his second save in as many games. He’s a good leader, too. But the Athletics responded with two runs in the bottom half. Carlos Gonzalez hit two solo shots for the Rockies.

Maddon, brutally honest as always, admits he checks the standings daily. However, he could not hold the lead as he wound up allowing four runs in three innings.

In Seattle, streaking Nelson Cruz hit his 33rd home run for the Mariners. Addison Russell was at shortstop, Chris Coghlan got the start at second and Kyle Schwarber was in left field, keeping Castro in the dugout. 500 mark at 56-56.

That made it 3-1 and the Cubs were not finished.

Two Sundays ago, the Cubs were swept by Philadelphia, the worst team in baseball. It was a costly mistake because Kris Bryant drew a two-out walk and Jorge Soler followed with a two-run double off Yusmeiro Petit. “Those would have saved a lot of pitches and I could have went deeper in the game”.

“Locked in”, Arrieta said when asked how to describe his recent stellar performances. “(But) I was able to locate the heater effectively enough to get though seven”.

Ryan Zimmerman homered twice for the Nationals, who remained 1 1/2 games behind the NL East-leading Mets. They only had four hits in the game, and Arrieta had one of them, a triple of all things. Jake Arrieta takes the hill, and he’s 12-6 with a 2.50 ERA and 152 strikeouts this season. It was Crawford s 70th RBI, establishing a career high. With the way the Cubs started off grinding at bats and putting pressure on Peavy, it’s hard to believe that those would be the only runs scored in the game, but it was.

Hendricks got a groundout to open the sixth but then allowed two runners and departed.

In Kansas City, Alex Rios beat the tag at the plate on a grounder in the eighth.

Lester s former Boston connection with Cubs executive Theo Epstein, plus his aversion to playing three time zones from his home, influenced his decision to take the Cubs six-year, $155 million offer when the Giants were offering more and the Dodgers gave him a blank offer sheet. With the first three games going to Chicago, they had a 2-0 lead going into the ninth inning today.

Broxton (1-3), traded from Milwaukee to the NL Central leaders on July 31, relieved Kevin Siegrist with a runner on second and a 4-3 lead.

Will Smith (5-2) pitched a scoreless eighth.

Cruz tied Angels star Mike Trout for most homers in the majors this season.

[Check out Big League Stew on Tumblr for even more baseball awesomeness.]. Cubs C Kyle Schwarber had two hits on Saturday and is 10-for-23 during a six-game hitting streak.2.

In Pittsburgh, Kang Jung-ho’s three-run homer capped a nine-run seventh inning. “Pitch count got up there, he was in the stretch every inning and couldn’t get a one-two-three inning and that caught up with him”. Carson Smith worked the ninth for his 12th save in 14 opportunities.

In Phoenix, the Diamondbacks waited for the umpires to sort out a wild ending after baserunning follies on the final play, and left with a win over the Reds.

Players returned to their clubhouse on Sunday and set off their smoke machine, pumped their music and partied.

“It’s nice to see these guys show up every day, regardless of what happened the day before and they’re ready to play”. He entered with a. 162 batting average in 21 games since the All-Star break. He is 13-6 for the season.