Cubs, Cardinals, White Sox All Nab Victories

By ESPN

Kris Bryant saw the adjustments Javier Baez was working on before the game with his swing. Then, he saw the results.

Baez came within a double of the cycle with four hits and three RBI, Kyle Schwarber broke out of a slump with a three-run homer and the Chicago Cubs defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 8-3 on Tuesday night.

Baez hit his second homer in as many days and tied his career high with hits, and Bryant homered and tripled for the Cubs, who won for the second time in six games.

Baez has been trying to improve his swing after a slow offensive April.

"I was watching him in his pregame and I think that something he was focusing on was trying to limit his leg kick a little bit," Bryant said. "And I saw it in the game. I was pretty impressed. He went from the cage right to the game. I don't know -- it's just what I saw. I thought he looked awesome today. He was right on everything."

Cubs starter Jon Lester (1-1) pitched long enough to earn his first victory of the season. He struck out five and worked around five walks and four hits. He allowed three runs, two earned, in five innings.

Lester improved to 11-2 at Wrigley Field since the start of the 2016 season. He also improved to 7-0 against the Phillies in nine starts.

Cubs manager Joe Maddon had issues with plate umpire Toby Basner's strike zone.

"There wasn't a strike zone tonight, it was a ball zone. That's what it was. I don't know what was going on," Maddon said. "What can I tell you? It was frustrating for both sides."

Phillies starter Jeremy Hellickson (4-1) had his worst outing of the season, allowing six runs on eight hits in four innings. He was tagged for three homers at chilly Wrigley Field.

Aaron Altherr homered for the Phillies, who have lost four of their last five.

Lester singled in the fourth with two outs for his first hit of the season, and Baez followed with another single. Then, Schwarber, in a 4-for-38 slump, homered to right on a 2-0 pitch. It was his first home run since April 18. Bryant followed with a triple and scored on Ben Zobrist's double to give the Cubs a 6-2 lead.

With two outs, Hellickson was close to getting out of the inning.

"It was a bad pitch, a bad curveball. It's about as frustrating as it gets. Nobody on, two outs and the pitcher up, 1-2 count. Yeah, it doesn't get more frustrating than that," Hellickson said.

Before the game, Maddon discussed Schwarber's struggles and said he had no intentions of pulling him out of the leadoff spot.

"It takes one at-bat to have a great night. That's what I tell to anybody struggling like he has been," Maddon said. "He had a great night."

Baez took advantage of a hanging breaking ball from Hellickson leading off the third for his third of the season. In the fifth inning, Baez hit a two-run triple off Phillies reliever Mark Leiter Jr.

In the first, Altherr hit his third of the season into the left-center basket. Bryant smashed his fifth of the season into the left-field bleachers in the Cubs' half of the inning.

Lester, who is usually reluctant to make a pickoff throw in a game, caught Altherr trying to steal second in the third with a soft toss to second to get the Phillies outfielder.

Tommy Joseph hit an RBI double in the fourth to score Michael Saunders from first to tie it at 2.

The Cubs bullpen was perfect, retiring the final 12 batters

Cubs reliever Carl Edwards Jr. pitched two perfect innings of relief with two strikeouts, Hector Rondon tossed the eighth and Wade Davis the ninth.

OOPS

The Cubs confirmed a report that their 2016 World Series trophy was damaged in Boston last weekend. Several flags were taken off the trophy while it was passed around by a crowd of enthusiastic fans at President Theo Epstein's Hot Stove Cool Music charity event on Saturday. The trophy was repaired and on display one day later.

Cardinals 2, Brewers 1

Carlos Martinez waited longer than he expected before earning his first victory of the season.

Martinez pitched effectively into the eighth inning and the St. Louis Cardinals once again beat Wily Peralta, topping the Milwaukee Brewers 2-1 on Tuesday night.

"I've been working really hard and I've always had faith in myself and my team and I knew that it was going to come eventually," Martinez said through a translator. "But I really worked hard for this, so it feels great."

Martinez (1-3), making his sixth start of the season, retired the first 12 batters. He gave up an unearned run and four hits in 7 1/3 innings, striking out four and walking one.

"Carlos was as good as we've seen him," manager Mike Matheny said. "That was complete-game-shutout stuff and really got into a good rhythm. Their seventh, got a little excited, I think, once he got a couple of outs and changed that rhythm a little bit. But he did a great job of getting it back together. Just a big day. Their guy (Peralta) pitched well, too, and they just kind of matched up. Carlos was everything we needed."

Trevor Rosenthal pitched a perfect ninth for his third save in as many chances.

Peralta (4-2) fell to 0-9 in his last 11 starts against the Cardinals. He allowed two runs in 5 1/3 innings and tied his season high with seven strikeouts.

"Both guys definitely had their A-stuff tonight for sure," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "I thought when Wily started the game, it was as good as we've seen from him. It was good velocity, his slider was good, he was pitching very, very well. And, obviously, Martinez it was a little different. It wasn't a big strikeout night, but he had lots of groundballs for sure."

Matt Carpenter, Stephen Piscotty and Wong each had two hits -- accounting for all six of the Cardinals' hits.

It was scoreless when Carpenter led off the sixth with a single and Piscotty had a one-out double. Yadier Molina had a sacrifice fly off reliever Jacob Barnes and Wong singled with two outs for a 2-0 lead.

Wong, who had a baserunning blunder and a fielding error in the Cardinals' 7-5, 10-inning loss on Monday, extended his hitting streak to eight games. He's batting .423 (11 for 26) during the streak.

"Obviously, there are going to be nights like I had last night which you want to forget and that's what I did," Wong said. "I accepted the fact I had a bad night, forgot about it, came in today and did my job."

The Brewers scored in the seventh when Domingo Santana single off Martinez's glove, Nick Franklin reached on a fielding error by Carpenter at first base and Jett Bandy singled.

White Sox 6, Royals 0

Jose Quintana received some welcome early run support in beating the Kansas City Royals.

Quintana gave up four singles over eight innings and the Chicago White Sox beat the Royals 6-0 on Tuesday night.

Quintana (2-4) walked two, struck out seven and allowed only one runner to reach second base. The White Sox had given him a career-low 1.84 runs per game in his first five starts, which was the second lowest in the American League. The White Sox, however, jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three innings Tuesday, making easier for the 28-year-old Colombian left-hander.

"That's good," Quintana said. "That's a nice thing. The hitters were aggressive the whole game. When you've got that support early, that's really good."

Quintana's career record is 48-50.

"He pitches well whether he has run support or not," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. "You ask anybody from the organization, even prior to me getting here, he's pitched well enough to win more games than his record shows, but he just hasn't had the run support. He's done his job."

Royals manager Ned Yost was impressed with Quintana.

"He was really, really good," Yost said. "You've got to give him some credit. He made the All-Star team last year and he's always been tough against us, even though we find ways to beat him."

The Royals lost for the 10th time in 11 games. Starter Danny Duffy (2-2) allowed six runs, 10 hits and two walks over five innings. Duffy has lost back-to-back starts to the White Sox, giving up 12 runs and 19 hits in 9 2/3 innings.

"I let my team down today," Duffy said. "The last two times I've gone out there I've cost my team a chance to win. So, I take all the responsibility for the last two losses."

It was Duffy's first home loss since Sept. 5, 2015, snapping his franchise record of 16 consecutive Kauffman Stadium starts without a defeat.

Yolmer Sanchez had three hits and Avisail Garcia and Geovany Soto each had two to lead Chicago's offense.

Garcia was 2 for 2 with a walk and was hit by a pitch. He leads the American League with a .382 batting average, and his on-base percentage hiked to .433. He scored a run in the second and drove in Sanchez with a third-inning single.

Sanchez led off the third with a double and drove in Soto with a single in the sixth. Soto had two hits, a sacrifice fly and two RBI. His second-inning single scored Todd Frazier with the first run of the game. His fly out to Whit Merrifield in the third scored Jose Abreu to make it 4-0.

Tuesday, May 2 Scoreboard

New York Yankees 11, Toronto 5

Arizona 6, Washington 3

Boston 5, Baltimore 2

Detroit 5, Cleveland 2

Pittsburgh 12, Cincinnati 3

Tampa Bay 3, Miami 1

Atlanta 9, New York Mets 7

Chicago Cubs 8, Philadelphia 3

Minnesota 9, Oakland 1

Houston 8, Texas 7

Chicago  White Sox 6, Kansas City 0

St. Louis 2, Milwaukee 1

Los  Angeles Angels 6, Seattle 4 (F/11)

Los Angeles Dodgers 13, San Francisco 5

San Diego 6, Colorado 2

Wednesday, May 3 Schedule (All Times Central)

Toronto at New York Yankees, 6 p.m.

Arizona at Washington, 6:05 p.m.

Baltimore at Boston, 6:10 p.m.

Cleveland at Detroit, 6:10 p.m.

Pittsburgh at Cincinnati, 6:10 p.m.

Miami at Tampa Bay, 6:10 p.m.

New York Mets at Atlanta, 6:35 p.m.

Philadelphia at  Chicago, 7:05 p.m.

Oakland at Minnesota, 7:10 p.m.

Texas at Houston, 7:10 p.m.

Chicago White Sox at  Kansas City, 7:15 p.m.

Milwaukee at St. Louis, 7:15 p.m.

Los Angeles Angels at Seattle, 9:10 p.m.

San Francisco at Los Angeles Dodgers, 9;10 p.m.

Colorado at San Diego, 9:10 p.m.