Patrick Wisdom homered and doubled and Frank Schwindel drove in the winning run in the ninth inning with a single as the Chicago Cubs defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-2 in the rubber game of their three-game series on Sunday afternoon in Phoenix.
Rafael Ortega also homered for Chicago, which won its second straight series and finished 4-2 on its six-game Western road trip.
Scott Effross (1-1) picked up the win with an inning-plus of scoreless relief while Rowan Wick earned his fourth save. Left-hander Justin Steele started for the Cubs and allowed one earned run on three hits over six innings. He walked two and struck out a career-high 10.
Christian Walker had two hits and a run scored and Cooper Hummel tripled for Arizona, which lost its second straight game. Ian Kennedy (2-2) suffered the loss.
Chicago needed just two pitches to take a 1-0 lead when Ortega, celebrating his 31st birthday, smashed a 428-foot homer into the bleachers down the right field line off Arizona starter Humberto Castellanos, his first home run of the season.
Wisdom made it 2-0 when he led off the second inning with his sixth homer of the season, a 414-foot line drive to left.
Arizona sent eight batters to the plate in the fourth and pushed across two runs to tie it, 2-2. Jordan Luplow led off with a walk and advanced to second one out later on a single by Walker. After Pavin Smith struck out, Daulton Varsho singled to right to drive in Luplow with Walker advancing to third. Walker then scored on a fielding error by shortstop Ildemaro Vargas.
Chicago then took a 3-2 lead in the ninth off Kennedy. Wisdom led off with a line double that one-hopped the fence in left-center and came around to score on Schwindel's soft liner down the right field line.
Walker led off the bottom of the ninth with a line single to left. After Wick replaced Effross, Smith blooped a single to left. Varsho popped out to third and David Peralta, pinch-hitting for Nick Ahmed, then grounded into a game-ending double play.
--Field Level Media
Chi. Cubs | Arizona | |
Justin Steele | Player | Humberto Castellanos |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
6.0 | IP | 5.1 |
10 | Strikeouts | 5 |
3 | Hits | 5 |
1.50 | ERA | 3.38 |
Chi. Cubs | Arizona | |
Patrick Wisdom | Player | Christian Walker |
2 | Hits | 2 |
1 | RBI | 0 |
1 | HR | 0 |
6 | TB | 2 |
.500 | Avg | .500 |