SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Madison Bumgarner struck out 11 over eight scoreless innings Wednesday, lifting the San Francisco Giants to a 4-0 blanking of the Chicago Cubs.
Bumgarner (9-12) improved to 6-1 in his last eight home starts, giving the Giants a crucial win as they struggle to make up ground against National League West-leading Arizona.
The left-hander was dominating, surrendering only two hits and walking two while tossing 88 of his 119 pitches for strikes.
Sergio Romo finished up the shutout with a scoreless ninth for the Giants, who entered the contest trailing the Diamondbacks by six games with an important weekend series against Arizona coming up.
Jeff Keppinger and Pablo Sandoval cracked back-to-back solo homers in the fourth and Keppinger (3-for-4) added an RBI single for San Francisco, which came into the game having lost seven of 11 contests.
Chicago's Rodrigo Lopez (4-6) was touched for four runs on nine hits over 5 1/3 innings, absorbing the loss.
