Three separate Cubs — Alfonso Soriano, Geovany Soto, and Reed Johnson — went deep as the Cubs beat the Nationals on Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, 4-2.
Rodrigo Lopez turned in another solid start, throwing 5.2 innings and giving up two runs (one earned) on five hits and no walks. He struck out four. Washington scored their first run in the top of the first inning, after a Starlin Castro throwing error allowed Ryan Zimmerman to score on what would have been the last out of the inning. Washington added another in the top of the sixth, as Jayson Werth hit his 14th home run of the season.
By that time, however, the Cubs had already jumped on Ross Detwiler. Detwiler gave up three runs on seven hits and two walks over 5.0 innings pitched, while striking out five. Geovany Soto started the Cubs scoring by leading off the bottom of the second with a solo homer, his twelfth of the year.
The Cubs then took the lead in the bottom of the fourth, as Alfonso Soriano hit a two out RBI double to score Soto, who had drawn a one out walk earlier in the frame. In the bottom of the fifth the Cubs extended their lead as Reed Johnson homered.
Johnson’s home run chased Detwiler from the game, but the Cubs managed to add insurance as Soriano hit his 20th home run of the season off of Nationals reliever Collin Balester.
After Lopez departed, the trio of Jeff Samardzija, Sean Marshall, and Carlos Marmol managed to hold the Nationals to just two hits over the remaining 3.1 innings. Marmol recorded his 25th save of the year in the victory.
The two teams will play the rubber match of the series, the makeup of Monday’s postponed game, on Thursday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:20 P.M., CDT.