Cub’s all-star first baseman Anthony Rizzo tied his career high with 6 RBIs in a game as Chicago defeated Arizona 14-6 Thursday night at Chase Field; though the Cubs won they lost Kyle Schwarber after he was carted off the field with a sprained ankle.
Schwarber injured
Schwarber was injured in the bottom of the second inning when he and center fielder Dexter Fowler collided, the collision resulted in an inside the park homerun for the Diamondback’s, Jean Segura. Segura's inside the park homer wasn't his first of the game either, in fact he had a home run in the first inning off the first pitch of John Lackey's Cubs career was a homerun by Segura. With the inside the park home run and the traditional home run in the same game, Segura became the eighth player in MLB history to lead off a game with a home run and an inside the park home run in the same game.
Newly acquired Cub, John Lackey (1-0), allowed 6 runs and 8 hits throughout his six innings of play in his Chicago Cubs debut, after a rough first pitch he bounced back thanks to great run support by the Cubs offense. Chicago has now opened the season with 3 consecutive road wins for the first time since 1988 and has accumulated nearly 30 runs in the process. Anthony Rizzo had a huge night, hitting a three run shot, two run triple and an RBI single. He wound up racking up 6 RBIs in the game, which the star first basemen had not done since May 23, 2015. The last time Rizzo had six RBIs in a game was at Chase Field as well.
De La Rosa struggles
Arizona had the game in their hands most of the night as they had leads of 3-0, 4-2 and 6-4. But Diamondbacks starting pitcher Rubby De La Rosa (0-1) started hitting rough patches which eventually cost the game for the D-Backs. De La Rosa lasted 3 1/2 innings, giving up 7 runs and 6 hits in the process, a rough night to say the least for his first start of the 2016 season.
John Lackey, who signed with the Cubs this past offseason, pitched only three innings as well after the Diamondbacks wound up taking the lead in the third inning leading 6-4. The Diamondbacks ended up walking 10 Chicago Cubs last night and they were one walk away from tying the team’s record for most walks given up in a game.
With the win, the Chicago Cubs now have won twelve consecutive road games dating back to September 15 of the 2015 season, tying the franchise record streak set by the 1945 Cubs. What happened in 1945? That was the last time the Cubs went to the World Series. These 2016 Cubs are defiantly off to a strong start.
Coming Up
Chicago looks to continue the win streak and improve to 4-0 on the year when they take on the D-Backs again on Friday, Jason Hammel gets the start for Chicago and Robbie Ray gets the start for the Diamondbacks.