Cubs embarrass Mariners in 11-0 beatdown |
SEATTLE, Wash. — Finishing off their 5-game West Coast road trip in style, the Chicago Cubs (16-12) cruised to an easy win over the Seattle Mariners (18-15) at T-Mobile Park. Chicago tabbed a 2-game sweep of the M's by way of the 11-0 shutout, finishing 4-1 on their western swing. A 6-run second inning did the trick for the Cubs on Wednesday, and a dominant outing by starting pitcher Jon Lester also contributed to the commanding nature of the victory.
Shortstop Javier Baez led off the second inning by smacking his 10th dinger of the season, with the leadoff home run carrying 430 feet out to right-center. A few at-bats later, left fielder Kyle Schwarber laid down a perfectly executed bunt for a single that was followed by a dropped fly ball to load the bases. Right fielder Jason Heyward then came through with an RBI single to make it 2-0, and, from there, Mariners starter Marco Gonzales fell apart. Gonzales walked Ben Zobrist and Kris Bryant with the bases juiced to force in two more runs, and Heyward scored after that via a sacrifice fly from first baseman Anthony Rizzo. Having gone through the entire batting order at that point, the Cubs tacked on one more in the frame for good measure by way of an RBI double to left from Baez that put them ahead 6-0. Baez faced only two combined pitches in his two second-inning at-bats, and he connected on both of them for a couple of RBI extra-base hits. ANOTHER opposite-field homer for @javy23baez!#EverybodyIn pic.twitter.com/DPonP4wkux Meanwhile, Lester showed out while pitching in his home state of Washington. The lefty tossed seven scoreless innings and gave up just one hit while striking out eight. As for Gonzales, he did not even make it through the second inning before being pulled. The Cubs added five insurance runs after their lucrative second inning. Bote made the gutsy decision to go from first to third on a bloop single by Heyward in the top of the third. Bote's courageous decision proved to be fruitful, as he was brought home on a sacrifice fly by Zobrist soon afterward. In the fourth, Seattle reliever Chasen Bradford was taken deep twice, with Rizzo tabbing his seventh homer of the season on a solo shot to right and catcher Willson Contreras driving out a 440-foot bomb to left for his eighth long ball of 2019. .@ARizzo44 has homered in three of our last four games! #TeamRizzo#EverybodyIn pic.twitter.com/Bzfb3Mal2Y .@WContreras40 barrels up! #EverybodyIn pic.twitter.com/t8wnJ2uyPG Baez went 3-for-5 in the contest. His third hit came on a double in the top of the ninth. After a sacrifice fly by Contreras brought in a runner to make it 10-0, Baez scored on an ensuing sacrifice fly off the bat of Schwarber for Chicago's 11th run. Contreras went 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored, and Heyward put together a successful 3-for-4 effort at the dish. The Cubs, who recorded 10 hits, produced a combined 1-hitter in their beatdown of the Mariners and have now won four in a row.
