CHICAGO — Seiya Suzuki and Miguel Amaya hit solo homers, serving to Kyle Hendricks and the Chicago Cubs beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3 on Sunday.

Chicago, which has a one-game lead fir the NL’s ultimate wild card, gained two in a row after dropping the sequence opener.

“It is such a close-knit group. Picking one another up, day in and day out. Again, we’re just playing good baseball focused on the fundamentals one day at a time. We’re in a good spot, we just got to go on a good stretch here and keep it rolling,” mentioned Hendricks.

Jordan Lyles (3-14) grew to become the most important leagues’ first 14-game loser as Kansas City fell for the fourth time in 5 video games and dropped to 40-86, higher solely than Oakland among the many 30 main league groups.

Hendricks (5-6) gained for the primary time since July 25, permitting one run and 5 hits in 6 1/3 innings. He retired 10 in a row earlier than his lone stroll, to Matt Beaty within the fifth inning.

Hendricks was a invaluable member of the rotation in the course of the 2016 World Series championship group.

PHOTOS: Suzuki and Amaya hit solo homers and Cubs beat Royals 4-3

“There is a few pieces missing right now, my curveball, runners on base, a couple of things, if I can bring that all together,” Hendricks mentioned.

Mark Leiter Jr. bought two outs within the seventh, Julian Merryweather pitched an ideal eighth and Adbert Alzolay bought his 18th save in 19 probabilities after permitting pinch-hitter Maikel Garcia’s run-scoring single and Beaty’s RBI groundout. With a runner on second, Dairon Blanco hit a game-ending groundout.

Lyles gave up 4 runs - two earned - and 5 hits in his third full sport this season. Lyles has pitched 4 video games this season wherein he has thrown at the least eight innings and misplaced.

After Michael Massey’s RBI single within the first, the Cubs went forward within the backside half when heart fielder Kyle Isbel allowed Ian Happ’s single to bounce by for a run-scoring, two-base error and Cody Bellinger adopted with a sacrifice fly.

“Had some ups some good and some bad. Obviously, the first inning wasn’t ideal.,” Lyle mentioned. “Later on in the game just two mistakes, backup sliders that left the yard, just execution-wise it wasn’t there on those two pitches, thankfully there was no one on base so it was only a single run each time,”

Suzuki hit his twelfth residence run of the season within the fifth and Amaya hit his fourth within the eighth inning.

WEB GEM

Royals SS Bobby Witt Jr. made a sliding backhanded catch within the outfield grass to rob Mike Tauchman of successful within the third inning.

SMYLY TIME

Cubs supervisor David Ross fiill the open spot within the beginning rotation with LHP Drew Smyly. “I am just hoping he can build off a couple of performances out of the pen. I think there are some analytic numbers that went to leaning towards him, there is some experience leaning towards him. I think there is the value of Hayden (Wesneski) out of the ‘pen,” Ross mentioned. Since Aug. 13, Smyly has not allowed a run in three straight reduction appearances. He is 7-8 with a 5.01 ERA as a starter this season.

FAST TIMES

The sport lasted 2 hours, 2 minutes, then quickest nine-inning sport at Wrigley Field since a 2-1 win over Philadelphia on May 8, 2005, took precisely 2:00. “The game keeps moving. There is a lot of excitement,” Hendricks mentioned. “I think it is a lot better for the fan overall..”

ADJUSTMENTS

Suzuki was dropped from the on a regular basis lineup in early August. He hit his third residence run since Aug. 9 and is batting .343 with six RBIs throughout that stretch. “There was a span where I wasn’t out there on a regular basis, so during that time I took some time, I thought to myself, what can I do to make myself even a better player and because of that time spent I’m getting better results now,” Suzuki mentioned by way of a translator.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals: Garcia missed his second consecutive star. He is coping with upper-body soreness on his left aspect. Royals supervisor Matt Quatraro expects Garcia to be prepared for Monday evening’s sport at Oakland.

UP NEXT

Royals: LHP Tucker Davidson (1-2) will transfer from the bullpen to a starter on Monday because the Royals begin a three-game sequence at Oakland. He might be making his first begin of the season.

Cubs: RHP Javier Assad (2-2) is scheduled to begin Monday at Detroit, which matches with RHP ALex Faedo (2-4, 5.16). Assad is 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA since rejoining the rotation on Aug. 5.

Copyright © 2023 The Washington Times, LLC.

Content Source: www.washingtontimes.com