PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Nico Hoerner homered early and scored the tiebreaking run in a five-run 10th inning as the Chicago Cubs defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 6-2 on Saturday night.
Hoerner began the 10th as the automatic runner on second base. He stole third with one out and scored on Frank Schwindel’s fielder’s choice. Schwindel hit a high chopper off José Alvarado (3-2), and third baseman Alec Bohm’s throw home was off target.
The Cubs went up by two on Christopher Morel’s RBI single. Bohm’s fielding error on Nelson Velázquez’s hard-hit grounder allowed two more runs to score before Willson Contreras added an RBI double to make it 6-1.
Bohm drove in a run with a groundout in the bottom half.
David Robertson (3-0) tossed a perfect ninth for the win.
Zack Wheeler threw seven strong innings for the Phillies, who have dropped the first two games in the series to the lowly Cubs.
Chicago began play with the fourth-fewest wins in the majors but won its third in a row. The Cubs improved to 4-11 in their MLB-leading 15th extra-inning game.
Wheeler and Marcus Stroman were both stellar in a starting pitchers’ duel.
Wheeler allowed only Hoerner’s homer and two other hits with six strikeouts and no walks. After finishing as the NL Cy Young Award runner-up in 2021, the Philadelphia right-hander wasn’t selected for this year’s All-Star Game despite a strong first half. He continued to impress against the Cubs while lowering his season ERA to 2.78 with 114 strikeouts and 22 walks in 106 2/3 innings.
Stroman matched Wheeler, pitching into the seventh and giving up one run on five hits with five strikeouts and two walks.
Darick Hall led off the seventh with a double off Stroman and scored on J.T. Realmuto’s single, ending the night for the Cubs’ starter after 86 pitches on a…
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