Goldschmidt’s 3rd HR lifts D’backs over Cubs
NATIONAL LEAGUE DIAMONDBACKS 10, CUBS 8
CHICAGO — The shortest of Paul Goldschmidt’s three home runs on Thursday — the one that went only about halfway up the left-center bleachers at Wrigley Field — turned out to be his biggest.
Goldschmidt snapped a tie in the ninth inning with his third long drive of the game, and the Arizona Diamondbacks pulled out a rain-delayed 10-8 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Thursday.
The Diamondbacks first baseman hit a 3-2 pitch from Wade Davis (2-1) deep into the right-center bleachers with one out. J.D. Martinez followed with another solo blast off the Cubs closer.
“It’s crazy,” Goldschmidt said. “I know I’ve never hit three home runs. And then to win that game — it was a good one for our team. We were ahead early and they came back, then we came back and they tied it up. It was just back and forth. They’re such a good team, so it was a good [victory].”
Goldschmidt’s first home run was a three-run shot to the top of the left-center bleachers in the first. His two-run shot in the fifth rocketed down the left-field line and bounced high on Waveland Avenue to make it 6-1.
Willson Contreras hit two home runs and had a career-high six RBI for Chicago, which lost consecutive games for the first time since the All-Star break. The Cubs’ NL Central lead over Milwaukee slipped to 1½ games.
Contreras leads all NL catchers with 18 home runs, and he’s batting .333 with 7 home runs and 24 RBI since the All-Star break.
“I feel like I didn’t do enough to
help the team to win,” Contreras said. “I’d rather go 0 for 5 with a win than 3 for 5 with 6 RBI.”
Jake Barrett (1-0), Arizona’s fifth reliever, got two outs in the eighth for the victory. Fernando Rodney worked around two walks in the ninth to earn his 24th save in 29 chances.
Jose Quintana was hit hard in his fourth start with the Cubs, allowing six runs. The lefty had not permitted more than three runs in three starts since moving across town in a July 13 trade with the White Sox.
“I felt good about the latter part of the game once we grabbed the lead,” Cubs Manager Joe Maddon said. “It just didn’t play out. But I still have a ton of faith in our bullpen.” BREWERS 2, CARDINALS 1 Keon Broxton drove in the go-ahead run and saved a run with a leaping catch, Matt Garza made a strong start in his return from the disabled list, and host Milwaukee beat St. Louis. ROCKIES 5, METS 4 Nolan Arenado walked with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning and Colorado beat visiting New York. PIRATES 6, REDS 0 Starling Marte went 3 for 4 and scored three times as host Pittsburgh had little trouble with Cincinnati. DODGERS 7, BRAVES 4 Alex Wood allowed one run in six innings, Chris Taylor had three hits and visiting Los Angeles beat Atlanta. AMERICAN LEAGUE