(Sports Network) - A thumb injury has limited what Aramis Ramirez has been able to do this season, but Chicago third baseman looked like his old self last night.
Ramirez and the Cubs shoot for their first-ever road sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks in tonight's finale of a three-game series at Chase Field.
A left thumb ailment has limited Ramirez to just 57 games this year and a .184 batting average, but the 32-year-old connected on a pair of two-run homers in last night's 6-4 triumph, his seventh and eighth home runs of the season.
Kosuke Fukudome added a solo homer and Carlos Silva pitched six innings of two-run ball to snap a four-start winless skid.
"When you score runs like that you're going to end up with good results because the pitching has been good all year," Ramirez said after his first multi-homer game since Aug. 23, 2008.
Chicago has won two straight for the first time since June 16-17 and won its first road series since late May. The Cubs have also posted their first series victory at Chase Field since Aug. 22-24, 2003 and were just 15-29 all-time there prior to this series.
The Cubs, who last swept the Diamondbacks in three games at home on May 9-11, 2008, seek a sixth straight victor over Arizona and turn tonight to Ryan Dempster, who has alternated wins and losses over his last four starts and is coming off Friday's setback to the Reds.
The 32-year-old righty allowed five runs -- two earned -- on two hits and five walks over 6 1/3 innings, striking out nine to give him 32 over his last four starts.
Dempster is 6-7 with a 3.54 earned run average this season and 1-6 with a save and 6.11 ERA in 16 career outings versus Arizona, including 12 starts.
Arizona has now lost four straight since winning interim manager Kirk Gibson's debut last Friday and got a home run out of Kelly Johnson in last night's loss. Barry Enright, making his second MLB start, yielded three runs over 5 2/3 innings.
"I was kind of throwing strikes all night, around the plate," Enright said. "I think they were pretty comfortable with me the third time through the lineup. They started hitting first-pitch fastballs."
The Cubs might not be as comfortable at the plate depending on which Edwin Jackson shows up for the D-Backs.
The 27-year-old threw an eight-walk no-hitter on June 25 versus the Rays and then won his third straight start on Friday in Gibson's debut. Jackson allowed four runs on seven hits and three walks in the 12-5 rout and hasn't lost since May 28.
The right-handed Jackson is 6-6 with a 4.74 ERA this year and is 0-1 with an 8.18 ERA in two starts versus the Cubs. That includes a May 2 meeting in Chicago in which Jackson was banged up for eight runs and 11 hits in just over four innings. Marlon Byrd and Alfonso Soriano both homered and combined for five RBI off him on that day.