Christian Vazquez homered, Spencer Arrighetti threw five scoreless innings and the Houston Astros topped the scuffling Chicago Cubs 4-2. Pete-Crow Armstrong hit…<\/p>\n
CHICAGO(AP) \u2014 Christian Vazquez homered, Spencer Arrighetti threw five scoreless innings and the Houston Astros topped the scuffling Chicago Cubs 4-2 on Friday.<\/p>\n
Pete-Crow Armstrong hit his sixth home run of the season for the Cubs, who have dropped six straight and 10 of 12. They started this week\u2019s homestand with a 15-game winning streak at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n
Arrighetti (6-1) won his second straight start after allowing two hits and four walks while striking out five. He issued a walk to start the third inning, then hit a pair of batters to load the bases, but worked out of the jam with a strikeout, infield popup and groundout.<\/p>\n
Bryan King, the last of four Houston relievers, got the final four outs for his fifth save.<\/p>\n
The Cubs also came up empty after loading the bases with two outs in the eighth. Chicago finished with just four hits and went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n
Vazquez led off the third with his fourth homer of the season and added an RBI single an inning later to make it 3-0. Zach Cole also drove in a run with a fielder’s choice in the fourth and Brice Matthews added an RBI single in the fifth.<\/p>\n
Jameson Taillon (2-4), who allowed his majors-worst 17th home run of the season to Vazquez, allowed all four Houston runs and lost his third straight start. He gave up eight hits and a walk and struck out five in 4 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n
\nUp next <\/p>\n
Houston\u2019s Kai-Wei Teng (2-3, 2.61 ERA) faces fellow right-hander Colin Rea (4-2, 4.98) on Saturday.<\/p>\n