The Chicago Cubs defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 6-1 thanks to another dominant start by Jake Arrieta who threw six innings of shutout, two-hit baseball.
Arrieta got out of a leadoff single and stolen base in the first inning by getting Logan Schaefer and Adam Lind to strike out and Khris Davis to ground out to second.
The starting pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers was rookie right-hander Ariel Pena who got off to a great start by striking out five of the first six batters he faced. However, he would go on to give up doubles to Addison Russell and Tommy La Stella to put the Cubs up 1-0 in the third.
Anthony Rizzo added a solo home run in the fourth off Pena for his 31st of the year and a two-run single in the fifth off of David Goforth who had just came into the game for the Brewers. He is currently sitting at 99 RBI which means his next will make him the first Cubs first baseman with 100 RBI since Derrek Lee in 2009.
An RBI single by Dexter Fowler in the sixth off of Goforth and an RBI double by Starlin Castro in the seventh off of Tyler Cravy made it 6-0, and that was it for the Cubs offense as the Brewers bullpen combined to give up two runs over 4.2 innings.
Arrieta threw 72 pitches over six innings in what was essentially a tune up start for the NL Wild Card game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He gave up only two hits and struck out seven. His impressive start means he has given up only four runs over his last 82 innings. He seems to be a favorite for the Cy Young award as his dominant performance meant he finished the second half with an unprecedented earned run average of 0.75, which is the lowest in big league history for the second half, and he has pitched to an MLB record 0.41 ERA since August which is the lowest since Spud Chandler had an 0.83 ERA in 1943.
The story of the game for the Cubs was, despite the six runs they scored, were their struggles with runners in scoring position as they went 3-for-16 in what is seeming to be a theme for the team, and something they need to work on for the postseason as they are hitting just .238 on the season which is well below the National League average of .250.
The Brewers got on the board in the seventh thanks to a solo home run by Khris Davis off of Trevor Cahill, but left-hander Travis Wood and Carl Edwards Jr. were able to shut down the Brewers to give the Cubs their 95th victory of the season and give Jake Arrieta his league leading 22nd win of the season.