Jun 6, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Jon Lester (34) pitches during the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Photo Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
PHILADELPHIA — Jon Lester pitched eight shutout innings and Jason Heyward homered as the Chicago Cubs held on to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-4 on Monday night.
Dexter Fowler and Kris Bryant had three hits apiece and Anthony Rizzo drove in two runs for the Cubs, who won for the fifth time in six games to improve their major league-best record to 40-16.
Philadelphia’s Freddy Galvis hit a three-run homer off reliever Justin Grimm in the ninth, and Tommy Joseph followed with a solo shot off Hector Rondon.
Rondon, who earned his 11th save, retired the next two hitters but allowed a single to pinch hitter Odubel Herrera. Another pinch hitter, Ryan Howard, grounded out to end the game, as the Phillies fell for the ninth time in 11 games.
Lester (7-3) won his third straight start, allowing four hits while striking out nine. He didn’t walk a batter, and he retired 18 of the last 19 hitters he faced, including 13 in a row between the second and sixth innings.
Lester, who earned a 6-2 victory over Philadelphia on May 27, improved to 6-0 against the Phillies in his career. He also contributed his second hit of the season, a fourth-inning double. He then scored when Heyward homered.
Philadelphia starter Adam Morgan (1-5) saw his personal losing streak reach five, as he went six innings and allowed three runs and eight hits while striking out five. He didn’t walk a batter.
Fowler led off the game with a double, the 26th time he has reached base to start a game this season, most in the major leagues. One out later, he came around on a ground-rule double by Bryant.
The Cubs made it 3-0 on Heyward’s two-run homer in the fourth. Lester doubled with one out, just his second hit in 23 at-bats this season and his sixth in 121 trips during his 11-year career. One out later, Heyward lined Morgan’s 2-1 slider into the seats in right field for his third homer of the season. Chicago added two more runs off reliever Elvis Araujo in the seventh, on Rizzo’s RBI single and Javier Baez’s safety squeeze. That made it 5-0.
Rizzo delivered another run with a ninth-inning single off reliever Brett Oberholtzer
NOTES: Cubs LF Jorge Soler left the game in the third inning after injuring a hamstring while running out a third-inning single. He was replaced by Matt Szczur. … Philadelphia SS Freddy Galvis ended an 0-for-22 skid with his ninth-inning homer. … Phillies OF Odubel Herrera, the team’s leading hitter with a .317 average, was not in the starting lineup Monday. Philadelphia manager Pete Mackanin said the left-handed-hitting Herrera was in need of a day off, and it was the right time to do it, given the fact that the Cubs started a tough left-handed starter in Jon Lester. Tyler Goeddel got the start in left field. … According to Elias Sports Bureau, Chicago RHP Jake Arrieta became the fifth pitcher (and first Cub) since 1900 to strike out 12 or more in five innings or fewer since 1900 when he fanned 12 over five innings in Sunday’s loss to Arizona. That loss snapped a personal 20-game winning streak by Arrieta, dating back to last July 25.
