Chicago Cubs Score and Recap (8/12/20): Cubs 7, Cleveland 2 – Hendricks Sharp, Cubs Walk All Over Cleveland

The Cubs continued to show no ill effects from their four-day break as they completed a mini-sweep of Cleveland Wednesday. Kyle Hendricks followed up Jon Lester‘s quality start with one of his own and the offense gave more than enough support for an easy win.

The Cubs got several early runners on against starter Carlos Carrasco, but the only tally came on a laser solo homer off the bat of Anthony Rizzo in the 3rd. Hendricks breezed through the early innings with tons of weak contact.

Chicago finally broke through in the top of the 5th inning for three runs when Jason Heyward hit a sacrifice fly and David Bote added a two-run single. A trio of weak Cleveland hits in the bottom of the inning led to a Jose Ramirez sac fly to cut the lead to 4-1.

Kris Bryant appeared to tweak his wrist diving for one of those hits, but he recovered quickly with a solo dinger in the top of the 6th. The Professor completed six strong innings allowing just the one run.

Jason Kipnis and Heyward would plate two more with doubles in the 8th and 9th innings. Dan Winkler, Rowan Wick, and Jeremy Jeffress came out of the bullpen to close out the 7-2 win. (Box score)

Why the Cubs Won

The starting pitching was great again, which is nothing new for the Cubs. The offense also worked lots of deep counts and drew a whopping 9 walks.

Key Moment

Carlos Santana faced Wick representing the tying run with two out in the bottom of the 7th, but the dangerous slugger grounded out to first base and Cleveland never threatened again.

Stats That Matter

• Rizzo was rocking the gold chains Wednesday and they clearly worked, as he reached base three times.
• Heyward also reached base three times as he continues to heat up.
• Wick looked very good striking out the side in the 8th.

Bottom Line

The Cubs just keep winning against all comers. Cleveland had not allowed more than four runs in any of their 17 games coming into this series, then the Cubs did it two days in a row. You love to see it.

On Deck

The cubs start a four-game series with the Brewers Thursday at 6:15pm CT as Yu Darvish faces off against Brett Anderson in a game airing on FOX and 670 The Score.