Bryant powers Cubs to fourth straight victory

Butler gives quality outing while Bryant & Almora Jr. provide the offense

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In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy famously said “there is no place like home.” The Chicago Cubs are proving that to be true. After taking seven of nine games on the previous home stand, the Cubs followed that with a six game losing streak and consecutive sweeps at the hands of the Dodgers and Padres.

Now, the Cubs are back at the friendly confines and after taking all three games against the rival Cardinals, Chicago was able to continue their home winning streak on Monday against the Miami Marlins with a 3–1 win. The first game of this three game series, which ended in a very tidy 2 hours and 15 minutes, saw the Cubs jump out to an early 2–0 lead in the first inning thanks to Kris Bryant’s two-run home run, his 13th of the season. Albert Almora Jr. provided a solo shot in the fourth inning to give the Cubs a 3–0 lead.

That was the only offense Chicago needed as Cubs starter Eddie Butler was able to keep the Marlins offense in check. Butler allowed one earned run and only three hits in 5.2 innings of work. The only run he gave up came in the sixth inning when Marlins second baseman Dee Gordon hit a sacrifice fly that scored JT Riddle.

From there, Butler turned it over to Mike Montgomery and he closed the deal all by himself. Montgomery gave the Cubs 3.1 innings of relief with only 3 hits allowed and no runs with 3 k’s. Miami’s biggest threat came in the eighth inning when they were down 3–1 with a runner on second and two outs. Giancarlo Stanton was the batter and Montgomery found himself down in the count 3–1. Two straight off-speed pitches in the dirt forced Stanton to chase as Montgomery got him swinging to end the inning. A 1–2–3 ninth inning wrapped up the Cubs fourth straight victory.

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Almora and Willson Contreras each finished with two hits on the night and accounted for four of the team’s six total hits. The win improves Chicago’s record to 29–27 on the season and tied for first place in the NL Central with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Up Next:

Game two of this series will feature Jake Arrieta v.s Jeff Locke with a 7:05 p.m. CT start. In 11 starts, Arrieta has a 4.60 ERA, 4.02 FIP and 1.340 WHIP. MLBEven though he is off to a slow start this season, Arrieta is coming off a solid outing in San Diego where he went six innings with only one run allowed. This will be Locke’s second start of the season for Miami.

Nick Konotopskyj is a recent graduate of St. Bonaventure University in Western New York. As a fan of the Cubs, Bills, Sabres and Knicks winning seasons have been hard to come by let alone title contending teams. Finally, the Cubs were able to lift the curse last fall. You can follow him on Twitter here.