Hendricks wins 10th straight, Cubs beat Diamondbacks
Kyle Hendricks outpitched Madison Bumgarner in six effective innings for his 10th straight win and the Chicago Cubs opened the second half of the season with a 5-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.
Hendricks (12-4) allowed a run on six hits and struck out four to match the Dodgers’ Julio Urias for the major league lead in wins. He is the first Cubs pitcher to go at least 12 straight starts without a loss since Jon Lester in 2016.
“I wanted to set a good tone, obviously winning being the main goal,” Hendricks said.
“It could have been a little better, I could have been a little more aggressive. I had a lot of long counts, a lot of baserunners, but made the pitches when I needed to.”
Pinch hitter Jason Heyward hit a two-run homer, All-Star Kris Bryant had a solo shot and Patrick Wisdom added another for Chicago.
“These guys just came out and played nice baseball,” Cubs manager David Ross said.
“We got the starting pitching, we got timely hitting, the big home run by Riz when they tied it up and obviously the pinch-hit home run by J-Hey was nice. It was just a good baseball game.”
Bumgarner (4-6) allowed two runs on two hits and struck out six in six innings in his return from the injured list. Josh Rojas doubled twice and had an RBI for last-place Arizona, which has lost four of five.
Hendricks gave up Rojas’ run-scoring double in the third inning and worked out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the fourth after walking two. He was lifted for Heyward in the seventh inning, becoming the first Cubs pitch with 12 wins before August since Lester in 2018.
Bumgarner was reinstated from the 10-day injured list after suffering left shoulder inflammation before the All-Star break.
The left-hander was sharp in his return. Bumgarner gave up a run in the second inning on Javier Baez’s sacrifice fly and Bryant, fresh off his fourth All-Star appearance, hit an 0-2 pitch out to right for a solo homer in the fourth.
Bumgarner also hit two batters.