Arizona Diamondback crush Chicago Cubs by 11-2 in series opener: MLB Update
The Arizona Diamondbacks’ Stephen Drew hit his first career grand slam, as the club crushed their league's rival, the Chicago Cubs, by 11-2 at the Chase Field on Thursday night, April 28, to take 1-0 lead in a four-game series.
In the first inning, Drew landed on the plate with all three bases-loaded and hammered a phenomenal 406-feet four-run homer. It was such a devastating blow for the Cubs’ starter, Ryan Dempster, that he went wobbly and gave three more runs in the same inning.
The Diamondbacks’ starter, Barry Enright, came for batting and aggravated Ryan’s start touching a runs batted (RBI) in single. Following this, Chris Young induced a double forcing the Cubs' skipper Mike Quade replace Dempster with Justin Berg.
"We have a lot of work to do in the next five days, that's for sure," manager Mike Quade said after losing their fourth straight and six of last seven games. "We need him to pitch better, especially given the situation we're in."
The lead went to 8-0 in second when Berg gave RBI single to Miguel Montero. In the top of the third inning, the Cubs’ hitter, Koyie Hill, blasted a homer to Enright trimming the lead 8-1. However, in the bottom of the third, Montero launched second homer
of the game, this time for two runs and widened the lead to 10-1. The Cubs’ slugger, Reed Johnson, added single in the seventh to take his team to 2-10.
In the bottom of the seventh, Drew again came in to action and drove in a grounder single. Drew was little nervous before hammering a grand slam and made it open to reporters after the game.
Drew said, "It can bother you, so that's why I stepped out and regrouped myself. I got a little frustrated, so I stepped back and took a few deep breaths. At least I had another pitch instead of it being strike three."
Enright, on the other hand, was happy to have his first win of the season. He pitched six and 2/3 innings, allowed two runs on five hits, gave four walks and made four strikeouts. Enright now, has 1-2 record with 5.76 ERA.
The closer Josh Collmenter pitched perfect two and 1/3 innings and made three strikeouts without giving any hit.
Dempster pitched less than an inning and gave seven runs on four hits, the worst record for any starter in 2011 season. Reliever Berg also went for three runs on four hits and allowed three walks over three and 2/3 innings.
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