Patrick Wisdom hit a home run, Marcus Stroman scattered eight hits in six shutout innings and the Chicago Cubs outlasted the host San Francisco Giants 4-2 on Friday.
Five of the game’s six runs were scored in the ninth.
The Cubs managed just six hits, but thanks in large part to Wisdom’s solo shot in the fifth, it was enough to produce a seventh win in the past eight games.
The Giants collected 13 hits but stranded 13 baserunners. They went just 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position, with two of those three hits failing to produce a run.
Wisdom bashed his 19th homer of the season and second in two nights at San Francisco. The latest blow came leading off the fifth after Giants starter Alex Cobb (3-5) had allowed just a fourth-inning infield single to Ian Happ in the first four frames.
Cobb tossed six-plus innings, allowing just the one run on three hits. He walked one and struck out 11, equaling the fourth-highest total of his career.
Meanwhile, the Giants put constant pressure on Stroman (3-5), nearly scoring in the first inning when Wilmer Flores was gunned down at the plate by left fielder Happ trying to score on a two-out single by Mike Yastrzemski.
The Giants stranded two in the first, second and fourth plus one in the third and sixth against Stroman, who gave up eight hits and one walk. He struck out three.
Protecting a one-run lead, Cubs reliever Scott Effross stranded the bases loaded in the seventh by getting Yastrzemski to ground out to first. Chicago’s Mychal Givens pitched around a one-out double by LaMonte Wade Jr. in the eighth.
The Cubs padded their advantage in the ninth after Nico Hoerner walked and Wisdom doubled. Frank Schwindel knocked in Hoerner with an infield hit, Alfonso Rivas brought home Wisdom with a single to right and an error by Yastrzemski in right field completed the three-run uprising.
Turns out, the insurance runs saved the game for the Cubs. The Giants got a two-run homer from Flores, his 15th, with one out in the ninth against David Robertson to get within 4-2.
Brandon Belt followed with a single, twice bringing the potential tying run to the plate, but Robertson got Yastrzemski to ground out before striking out Thairo Estrada to end it.
Wisdom had two hits and scored twice while Schwindel added a pair of singles for the Cubs, who were beaten 4-2 in the series opener.
Flores had a single, a double and a homer, Jason Vosler added two doubles, and Belt and Tommy La Stella collected two hits apiece for the Giants, who lost for the eighth time in nine games since the All-Star break.
–Field Level Media