Baez, Lester Lead Cubs Past Phillies 8-1
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Javier Baez hit one of three solo home runs off Cy Young candidate Aaron Nola to reach 30 home runs and 100 RBIs, and Jon Lester pitched six shutout innings to continue his mastery of the Phillies and help lead the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs to an 8-1 victory over Philadelphia on Sunday.
Daniel Murphy and Anthony Rizzo also went deep off Nola (15-4), who gave up three home runs in a game for just the second time over 88 starts in his four-year career.
Lester (15-5) surrendered eight hits, struck out seven and walked none while improving to 8-0 with a 1.49 ERA in 10 career regular-season starts against the Phillies.
Chicago, which has won 10 of 12, began play leading the Cardinals by 4 ½ games.
The Phillies fell 3½ games back of Atlanta, which hosted Pittsburgh Sunday night. Jorge Alfaro had two hits, including an RBI double in the ninth, for Philadelphia.
Manager Gabe Kapler moved Nola up a day to give him another start at home, where the star right-hander has been dominant, but it backfired. Nola gave up four runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings with 11 strikeouts and two walks.
Nola fanned seven of the first nine hitters, including six in a row, before Murphy's two-out shot to right in the third gave Chicago a 1-0 lead.
Murphy looked bad while weakly fouling off the previous two pitches before launching a 1-2, 94-mph fastball into the seats to continue his success against Nola. Murphy is batting .345 (10-for-29) with two homers and six RBIs against the right-hander.
Rizzo led off the fourth by clubbing an 0-1, 85-mph changeup over the wall in left, and Baez, the league leader in RBIs entering Sunday, hit a 1-2 fastball out to left in the sixth.
Nola also gave up an RBI triple to Kyle Schwarber in the sixth to snap a string of 17 straight home starts allowing three runs or less. He dropped to 9-1 at home, where his ERA rose from 1.94 to 2.21. Nola's overall ERA increased from 2.10 to 2.23.
The other top contenders for the NL Cy Young, Washington's Max Scherzer and the Mets' Jacob de Grom, will pitch on Monday.
NOT HIS DAY
Nola continued to struggle on Sept. 2. The right-hander has allowed multiple homers in a game 10 times, including all three starts he has made on Sept. 2 (2018, 2017 and 2015). Overall, Nola has a 9.82 ERA on Sept. 2 while allowing 24 hits, including seven homers, over 14 2/3 innings.
CARDS ALLOWED
Major League Baseball has told teams that it's OK for pitchers to use the kind of scouting cards that umpire Joe West confiscated from Philadelphia reliever Austin Davis on the mound Saturday.
Kapler said Sunday that he'd been informed the cards were legal. They are, provided they don't delay games, MLB told clubs in clarifying the policy.
GREAT COMPANY
The 25-year-old Baez became the fifth Cubs player to reach 30 homers and 100 RBIs in a season before or during the age of 25, joining Ernie Banks, Kris Bryant, Rizzo and Ron Santo.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Phillies: 1B Justin Bour, out since Aug. 23 with a left oblique strain, was activated from the DL.
UP NEXT
Cubs: LHP Cole Hamels (9-9, 3.70) looks to remain perfect with the Cubs on Monday afternoon in Milwaukee, where he faces RHP Zach Davies (2-5, 5.23). Hamels is 4-0 with a 0.69 ERA in six starts since being traded to Chicago from Texas.
Phillies: Begin six-game road trip with a three-game set at Miami on Monday afternoon with RHP Vince Velasquez (9-9, 4.05) opposing Marlins RHP Jose Urena (4-12, 4.56).
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