Chris Valaika hit a two-run homer in the Chicago Cubs' 6-2 win over the slumping Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday.
Cuba sensation Jorge Soler stayed hot, driving in a pair of runs for Chicago. Soler, who has hit safely in all seven games since making his major-league debut, has 10 RBI already and has only gone one game without driving in at least one run.
Fellow Cubs rookie Kyle Hendricks (6-1) improved to 5-0 over his last seven starts after yielding just two runs on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings. Four relievers combined to toss 3 1/3 innings of one-hit ball.
Hendricks was named the National League Rookie of the Month for August earlier in the day.
Milwaukee, which led the National League Central two weeks ago, has dropped eight straight games and 11 of 13 to fall three games back of the division- leading Cardinals. Matt Garza was the latest victim in his first game after missing a month on the disabled list.
Garza (7-8) gave up all six runs on eight hits, lasting just three innings in his first appearance since Aug. 3. The former Cub missed time with a left oblique strain.
Logan Schafer plated Khris Davis in the top of the second inning for Milwaukee's first run, but it was all Chicago the rest of the way.
Valaika followed Logan Watkins' two-out single in the second with a no-doubter to left field.
"I was just looking for a good pitch to hit," Valaika said. "Something I could drive. I saw the slider well out of his hand, put a good swing on it and put us on the board."
The Cubs then sent nine batters to the plate in the third inning and pushed four more runs across.
Chris Coghlan led things off with a single, stole second and moved to third on Luis Valbuena's bloop single that confused Brewers shortstop Jean Segura. Soler made it 4-1 with a two-run double to left, and he scored on Welington Castillo's ground rule double. Watkins singled in Castillo with two outs, and the Cubs owned a 6-1 lead.
Valaika's error in the sixth allowed Lyle Overbay to score the second Brewers run.
[SportsNetwork.com]
