Arrieta leads Cubs to MLB-leading 80th win

Arrieta leads Cubs to MLB-leading 80th win
by - Senior Editor - Wed Aug 24 08:23:02 GMT-04:00 2016

SAN DIEGO -- The Cubs continued their sizzling play with their 5-3 win over the San Diego Padres in front of 33,614 fans at Petco Park on Tuesday night. The Northsiders are the first team in the major leagues with 80 wins, and quickest for the team to reach the 80-win benchmark since 1929. It is also the Cubs 21st win in their last 26 games.

The Cubs showed off their power once again as the third baseman Kris Bryant smacked his 33rd homer on a line drive to left field in the third inning to put the Cubs on the scoreboard 1-0. The baseball went out of the ballpark in a speedy 3.81 seconds which is the second fastest homer he has hit this season. Bryant has 13 hits in his last 27 plate appearances, and he has the most homers by a Cub since Derrek Lee hit 35 in 2009.

"It's pretty cool to hit a home run on the day they're here," Bryant said to reporters about his family in attendance. "I'm glad they were here showing support."

Bryant is hitting an impressive .439 with 28 runs, 43 hits, 11 homers, 35 RBI, ten walks in Jake Arrieta's starts this season.

Ben Zobrist doubled in Kris Bryant on a line drive to center field to make the score 2-0 in the fifth inning.

The hottest Cub is certainly Addison Russell as he hit his 19th homer of the season on a fly ball to left-center field in the fifth inning to put the Cubs up with a commanding 5-0 lead.

Russell has seven homers and 13 RBI in the last 13 games including five homers in the previous five games. It is the first time he has homered in three straight games, and he now has 82 RBI. The 22-year old is on pace on the season for a solid 25 homers and 100 RBI.

The Cubs offense has hit at least two home runs in their last seven games.

Bryant continued his offensive production during the game with a sacrifice fly to score Jake Arrieta in the sixth inning to put the Cubs up 6-0.

Cubs ace Jake Arrieta recorded his NL-leading 16th win of the season going eight strong innings giving up only two hits, three walks, and six strikeouts to lower his season ERA to 2.62.

"[Arrieta's] fastball command kept getting better game in progress," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said to reporters after the game. "That was really reminiscent of last year."

Arrieta also hit his third career triple which is the most among active pitchers.

Fireball Aroldis Chapman picked up his 28th save of the season getting the last two outs while allowing two walks and a strikeout.

Kyle Hendricks will take the mound on Wednesday with his gaudy 2.16 ERA against Padres starter Paul Clemens at 2:40 p.m. CT.

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