CHICAGO (AP) — Kyle Hendricks dominated over six scoreless innings to win his eighth straight start, Kris Bryant homered and the Chicago Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-1, on Tuesday night to avoid a two-game sweep.
Willson Contreras and Patrick Wisdom also went deep, and the Cubs won for only the third time in nine games.
Hendricks (10-4) extended the best streak of his career and the longest by a Cubs pitcher since Jake Arrieta won nine consecutive starts to bridge the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
He scattered four hits and struck out five without a walk. He also tied Cleveland's Aaron Civale for the MLB lead in wins.
Bryant made it 1-0 in the fourth when he connected against rookie Eli Morgan (0-2) for his first home run since June 4 at San Francisco. The drive to about the second row in center field ended a career-worst stretch of 48 at-bats without an extra-base hit.
The Cubs broke it open with four in the sixth.
Joc Pederson chased Morgan with a two-run double with none out. Javier Báez — pulled the previous night by manager David Ross because of a baserunning lapse — lined a ground-rule RBI double to left against Nick Sandlin. Contreras then singled in a run to make it 5-0. He and Wisdom added back-to-back solo homers in the eighth.
Cleveland, which had won six of eight, got its run in the top half on a forceout by Amed Rosario after loading the bases with none out.
The 25-year-old Morgan gave up four runs and four hits in his third big league start. He struck out nine and walked none.
UP NEXT
Indians: Cleveland opens a four-game series at Minnesota on Thursday, with RHP J.C. Mejia (1-2, 6.11 ERA) pitching for the Indians and RHP José Berríos (7-2, 3.56) going for the Twins.
Cubs: RHP Zach Davies (4-4, 4.66) looks to bounce back as the Cubs open a four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday. Davies was pounded for eight runs in a loss to Miami last week after delivering back-to-back scoreless outings in winning his previous two starts.
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