• Cubs hit 6 homers and frolic, 17-2
PHILADELPHIA » The Chicago Cubs one-upped Philadelphia’s Rhys Hoskins with an impressive display of team power.
Anthony Rizzo and Tommy La Stella each homered twice, Kyle Hendricks pitched seven strong innings and Chicago routed the Phillies 17-2 Saturday night despite another home run from Hoskins.
Kris Bryant and Ben Zobrist also went deep for the NL Central-leading Cubs, who tied their season high for homers and hits (17) while setting new marks for runs and margin of victory. Rizzo had five RBIs and La Stella added four.
“That was a lot of fun,” La Stella said.
Hendricks (5-4) earned his first victory since May 24, limiting the Phillies to two runs and six hits with eight strikeouts and no walks. He also helped himself with a single and a two-run double in Chicago’s seven-run seventh that tied a season high for most runs in an inning.
“A lot of guys had good nights,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “It was nice to see that occur.”
Hoskins continued his historic pace with a first-inning home run that gave him 10 in his first 57 atbats over 17 games, marking the fastest a player has reached 10 homers in major league history. He drove a 1-2 pitch from Hendricks that was down in the zone into left-center for a 2-0 lead.
“It is pretty special, definitely an honor,” Hoskins said. “I’m just glad I was able to do it in a Phillies uniform.”
The Cubs completely took over from that point.
La Stella got a run back in the second with a drive to deep right, Rizzo connected on a three-run shot to center in the third for his first of the night and the Cubs chased Ben Lively (1-5) with two more runs in the fifth on consecutive solo homers by Bryant and Rizzo.
Rizzo’s landed in the Phillies’ bullpen 424 feet from center, six feet shorter than his first one, and gave him 30 homers for the season. It was his 16th career multihomer game and third this year.
“Just trying to put good swings on the ball,” Rizzo said. “It’s really not more complicated than that.”
Lively gave up six runs on five hits, four of which were homers, with eight strikeouts and two walks.
Chicago blew the game open with seven runs in the seventh off relievers Drew Anderson and Jesen Therrien. Anderson was demoted to Triple-A Lehigh Valley after the game.
La Stella connected off Yacksel Rios in the ninth for his first career multihomer game. Zobrist capped the power display with a pinch-hit, tworun shot two batters later off Rios.
“The pitching let us down,” Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. “It’s not fun to bring in new pitchers who are not quite ready.”
LOTTA LUCK
An .098 career hitter entering, Hendricks started the seventh inning with a single and capped the scoring in the inning with a two-run double as the Cubs sent 11 batters to the plate.
“Just closed my eyes and got lucky, I guess,” Hendricks said.
UP NEXT
CUBS » RHP John Lackey (10-9, 4.90) goes for the Cubs in the series finale. Lackey is 5-4 with a 2.77 ERA in 10 starts against the Phillies. PHILLIES » RHP Nick Pivetta (4-9, 6.73) will be recalled from TripleA to take the hill.