ST. LOUIS (AP) Jake Arrieta got some help from the Cubs’ offense to stay perfect.
Arrieta remained unbeaten this season despite allowing as many as four runs for the first time in nearly a year as the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 9-8 on Wednesday.
”I picked a good day to be (bad),” Arrieta said. ”I was aggressive but they had a good game plan coming in and it was a good thing our offense was able to be extremely productive today.”
Arrieta (9-0) joined the White Sox’s Chris Sale as the only nine-game winners in the majors.
Arrieta allowed four runs in a regular-season game for the first time since June 16, 2015.
Regardless, he became the first Cub to win his first nine decisions since Kenny Holtzman in 1967 and it is the best start to a season for the franchise since Jim McCormick went 16-0 in 1886.
The Cubs have won Arrieta’s past 23 starts, a franchise record.
”There was not any good flow to his pitching today,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. ”You look at the gun everything’s normal. The guy competes.”
Kris Bryant hit a three-run homer and Jason Heyward and Ben Zobrist each drove in two runs for the AL Central-leading Cubs.
The Blues Jays halted New York’s six-game winning streak, with Russell Martin hitting his first two home runs of the season as Toronto finally broke out its big bats in an 8-4 win over the Yankees.
At Houston, Evan Gattis hit a two-run homer and Luis Valbuena had a tiebreaking solo shot in the sixth inning that gave the Astros a 4-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
AL-East leading Boston got its fourth straight win – 10-3 against the Rockies – with Jackie Bradley Jr. extending his major league-best hitting streak to 29 games.
The Mets had a 2-0 win at Washington, the Dodgers competing a three-game sweep against Cincinnati with a 3-1 win in Los Angeles, and David Freese hit a long two-run home run to cap a four-run fifth inning as the Pittsburgh Pirates rallied for a 5-4 win over the Diamondbacks.
At Chicago, the Cleveland Indians won 4-3 after roughing up a top White Sox pitcher for the second straight day.
After sending Chris Sale to his first loss after a 9-0 start, the Indians got three runs and five hits in six innings against Joel Quintana (5-4). Quintana’s ERA, an AL-best 1.98 at the start of the day, rose to 2.22.
The Marlins were 4-3 winners over Tampa Bay, the Mariners routed the Athletics 13-2, Texas beat the Angels 15-9 – with Rangers rookie Nomar Mazara hitting the longest home run in the major leagues this season – and the Twins held off the Royals 7-5.
The surging San Francisco Giants got their 13th win in 14 games with a 4-3 win over the Padres, the Phillies salvaged the finale of a three-game series with an 8-5 win in Detroit and the Brewers edged the Braves 3-2 with Jonathan Villar’s run-scoring single in the 13th inning for sending Atlanta to another home loss.
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