Carlos Pena and Geovany Soto lead Chicago Cubs to 4-1 win over Los Angeles Dodgers - MLB Update
The Chicago Cubs’ Carlos Pena hit a tying homer in the seventh and Geovany Soto hit a tie breaking double in the ninth, as the Cubs defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1 in the second game of the three game-series at the Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, May 3.
The Cubs were facing a one run deficit in the seventh inning with 1-0 on board, as Carlos entered the field after Marlon Byrd got out. Pena launched a tying grand slam on the very first ball he faced from Dodgers’ starter Chad Billingsley.
Before yielding this run, Billingsley pitched a phenomenal six innings and got eight strike-outs providing his club a dream start. However, after allowing a homer the skipper Don Mattingly relieved Chad with Matt Guerrier. Matt proved this change a good
decision tossing a scoreless eighth inning.
The Dodgers then employed top reliever Jonathan Broxton and were hopeful to hold the opposition scoreless, but all hopes washed away when he allowed two straight walks. With Byrd on second and Pena on first, Mattingly had no other option other than to change
Broxton with closer Blake Hawksworth.
Mattingly, who watched the entire game sitting in his corner, told reporters, "Broxton's one of our guys, and we just have to figure things out. Today it did not look like the ball was coming out of his hand good and he was not throwing strikes. At that
point, I can't really leave him out there when he's not throwing the ball over the plate."
Blake got two straight strikes, but gave away a tie-breaking RBI double to Soto. Blake lost his momentum completely and allowed another RBI single to Blake Dewitt. The Cubs’ closer pitched one perfect inning for his eighth save of the season.
Cubs’ starter, Ryan Dempster pitched seven brilliant innings, allowed one run on six hits and took out five batters to set the foundations for the team. The run he allowed was through a homer by Matt Kemp in the sixth inning. Dempster was pleased of his
captivating contribution.
He said, "I put those first six starts behind me and forgot about them. The nice part is that my mom was saying to me: `April showers bring May flowers.' So hopefully, that is the case. But I'm not going to relax at all after one good outing. Trust me. I'm
going to keep pushing and working hard and get on a roll as best I can."
The only positive point for the Dodgers in the game was Andre Ethier’s hit in the fourth inning that took him to a 28-game hitting streak, just three less than to Willie Davis’ 31-game franchise-record.
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