Cubs tally five home runs but fall to Astros

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HOUSTON, Texas — It is not often that a team homers five times in a game and loses, but the Chicago Cubs (30-23) did just that against the Houston Astros (37-19) on Tuesday. Dropping their third straight, the Cubs fell 9-6 at Minute Maid Park in a contest that saw them score all six of their runs via five home runs. Unfortunately for the North Siders, starting pitcher Jon Lester experienced his second consecutive dismal outing, resulting in the Astros notching the victory.

After an RBI double from Yuli Gurriel put the Astros up 1-0 in the first, the Cubs responded by jacking three homers in the second. Jason Heyward led off the frame with an opposite-field blast, and Addison Russell, who has homered three times in the last four games, followed that up with an opposite-field dinger of his own. A few at-bats later, David Bote got in on the action with a solo shot to put the Cubs up 3-1. Bote went 3-for-4 on the night, and each of his three hits was of the extra-base variety.

Superstar Astros slugger Alex Bregman went deep twice in the contest, with the first instance coming on a leadoff round-tripper to start the bottom of the third. Lester went on to suffer through a miserable fourth inning that featured the Astros scoring four runs on four hits and one walk. A 2-run double hit off the wall by Michael Brantley with two outs provided Houston with a 6-3 edge.

The Cubs were able to get back in the game, though, via another multi-homer inning. In the top of the sixth, Bote secured his second 2-homer game of the season with a 2-run bomb that plated Daniel Descalso. Giving the Cubs back-to-back jacks, left fielder Kyle Schwarber tied the game up with a solo home run in the plate appearance immediately following Bote's second dinger of the evening.

With the game tied 6-6, Lester was pulled after issuing a 2-out walk in the bottom of the sixth, and his replacement on the mound, Brad Brach, was taken deep on his first pitch, as Bregman hammered a 2-run shot that put the Astros back in front. Brach proceeded to give up an RBI double in the seventh that led to the final score of 9-6. With the second defeat in a row to the Astros under their belts, the Cubs were assured of their second straight series loss. Also, Chicago has now lost three consecutive games for the first time since early April.

Chicago Cubs at Houston Astros
May 28, 2019	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Chicago (30-23)	0	3	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	6	9	1
Houston (37-19)	1	0	1	4	0	2	1	0	-	9	11	0
W: Josh James (2-0) L: Jon Lester (3-4) S: Roberto Osuna (15)

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