After a tumultous defeat last night against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Chicago Cubs needed to bounce back on the road against their NL Central rival. On a coincidence, yesterday it was also the first game of the season where Anthony Rizzo didn't play and the young slugger surely made his presence felt today on the second game of the series against The Brew Crew.
Rizzo homered twice, drove in four runs and sparked the Cubs' offense on their way to a great 8-0 win against the NL Central leaders.
Rizzo connected both bombs off starter Wily Peralta. The first one came in the top of the fourth inning and the other one was in the top of the sixth, giving the Cubs a 4-0 lead. But Chicago would continue to produce and added two more runs in the inning right after Zach Duke replaced Peralta.
Duke entered the game after an double from Starlin Castro and a walk from Nate Schierholtz so there were runners on first and second. Chris Coghlan singled to drive in Castro and John Baker did the same thing to score Schierholtz. An RBI double from Darwin Barney scored Coghlan just before Duke struck out Jason Hammel to end the inning.
Emilio Bonifacio had an RBI single to score Justin Ruggiano in what would be the final run of the night for the Cubs. Their offense was very good but the pitching was also very solid thanks to a prolific performance from Jason Hammel.
The costless agency pickup was at his best today, pitching seven innings where he only allowed four hits and struck out eight to pick up his sixth win of the season. Justin Grimm and Pedro Strop each added a scoreless inning in what turned out to be a very complete performance for the Cubbies.
There's a lot of work left to be done by Rick Renteria as the Cubs still have the worst record in the Majors. But performances like today's one show that the team could be on the right track sooner than later.