CHICAGO (AP) – Ian Happ hit his second career grand slam, Jose Quintana tossed two-hit ball through seven innings to win his sixth straight decision and the Chicago Cubs ripped the Oakland Athletics 10-1 on Wednesday.
Kyle Schwarber hit a three-run homer, Victor Caratini connected and Javier Baez kept up his latest hot streak with two hits and two RBIs as the Cubs responded with a rout of their own after Oakland pounded them 11-4 on Tuesday night. NL Central-leading Chicago took two of three from the A’s and won its fifth in six games.
Baez was replaced at shortstop by David Bote in the eighth after fouling a pitch of his left leg in the seventh. Last year’s NL MVP runner-up, Baez is batting .478 (11 for 23) with nine RBIs in a six-game hitting streak.
Quintana (10-7) allowed one run, struck out seven and walked one. David Phelps and Pedro Strop each followed with a scoreless inning to wrap up a three-hitter.
The Athletics got their only run off Quintana in the fourth when Marcus Semien led off with a double and scored on Matt Olson’s sacrifice fly. Oakland lost for just the third time in its last 10.
Happ, recalled from Triple-A on July 26, went deep for second time in three games against Oakland as he made his first start at second base in nearly two years.
A’s starter Homer Bailey (9-8) set down nine of the first 10 hitters before Chicago scored five runs in the fourth. The right-hander yielded seven runs in 4 2/3 innings in his fifth start since arriving in a arriving in a trade from Kansas City on July 14.
Baez singled in Chicago’s first run in the fourth to tie at 1 before the Cubs loaded the bases with one out. Batting left-handed, the switch-hitting Happ stroked Bailey’s first pitch into the left-center bleachers to make it 5-1.
Baez singled in another run off Bailey to start Chicago’s four-run fifth. With two runners on, Schwarber muscled his 26th homer, an opposite-field shot to left-center, off reliever Lou Trivino to make it 9-1.
Caratini homered off Blake Treinen in the eighth.
