Randy Wells should be happy tonight.
By beating the San Francisco Giants Wednesday night, following his win last week in St. Louis, it is the first time since April that he won two consecutive games. He has been trying hard to turn his unfortunate season around but it took him until the end of the year to do so.
The right-hander (8-13) outdueled the hot Giants starter, Jonathan Sanchez in the Cubs’ 2-0 victory to tie the series at one game apiece in the three-game set.
The Cubs’ first run came in the third inning and it was the game-winning run. Lead-off Kosuke Fukudome connected as his 13th home run of the year went over the right-field wall near the foul pole to make it 1-0.
They threatened to add more runs in the same frame. With two outs, Darwin Barney had walked before Starlin Castro singled to center field which advanced him to third. Marlon Byrd came up batting but ended up with a inning-ending strikeout.
In the fifth, the Cubs doubled the lead.
Koyie Hill opened the fifth inning with a double to left field. Wells tried to bunt while Jonathan Sanchez threw a wild pitch that ended up in the backstop. Giants catcher Buster Posey attempted to throw out Hill who was trying to reach third on the play, but Posey’s throw was off-line that allowed Hill to score.
Cruising through eight innings, Randy Wells quieted the Giants offense by not allowing a single run. He limited his opponents to six hits, striking out six and walking only one.
The Giants’ best chance was in the first; Freddy Sanchez hit a one-out double to center field. Wells then served up the following batter, Aubrey Huff, a single which moved Sanchez to third on the play. But he ended the inning striking out both cleanup batter Buster Posey and Pat Burrell.
Since allowing a double to Jose Guillen in the second inning, Wells retired 13 batters in a row. And in the fifth and sixth, the hurler escaped from trouble with the help of a couple of double plays
Wells was pulled out after issuing a two-out walk to pinch hitter Travis Ishikawa and a double to Cody Ross. Closer Carlos Marmol came in to rescue his team by fanning Freddy Sanchez.
He completed his mission shutting down the opponents in the ninth. With two outs, he walked Pat Burrell but struck out the potential game-tying run Jose Guillen to earn his 34th save of the season.
With a record of 2-0 and an ERA of 0.67 in his last four starts, Jonathan Sanchez (11-9) pitched well enough in 5.2 innings by giving up two runs (one earned) on four hits. His only mistake was the 89-mph fastball he served up which ended up as the third-inning home run. He also struck out six and gave out two walks.
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