Chicago: Jason Hammel raised his record to 4-0 and Anthony Rizzo hit a pair of doubles as the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-2 on Monday night.
Hammel’s ERA rose to 1.24 after entering the game with a National League-leading 0.75 mark as he gave up two runs and five hits in five-plus innings with three strikeouts and one walk. His streak of five straight starts of allowing one run or fewer ended.
The Cubs improved to 18-6, tops in the major leagues, and avoided losing consecutive games for the first time this season while winning for the fifth time in six games.
Bartolo Colon threw eight shutout innings on Monday night to earn his 220th career victory — second all-time among pitchers born in the Dominican Republic — and the New York Mets hit three homers during a four-run first inning before cruising to a 4-1 win over the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field.
Colon allowed seven hits and walked none while striking out seven in breaking a second-place tie with Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez. The all-time leader in wins by Dominican-born pitchers is Hall of Famer Juan Marichal, who earned 243 victories.
Meanwhile, Nomar Mazara and Brett Nicholas hit solo home runs as Texas defeated Toronto.
Mazara, whose home run in the eighth inning broke a 1-1 tie, also threw out a runner at the plate from right field in the bottom of the eighth to preserve the lead.
And Brandon Crawford hit a go-ahead, three-run home run in the seventh inning as the San Francisco Giants rallied for a 9-6 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in the opener of a three-game series on Monday night at Great American Ball Park.
Reliever Vin Mazzaro (1-0) earned the victory in his debut for the Giants, and Santiago Casilla recorded his fifth save.
