MILWAUKEE (AP) — Seiya Suzuki has wasted no time getting back into the swing of things since coming off the injured list.
Suzuki homered for the second straight night and had three RBIs as the Chicago Cubs overcame Kyle Hendricks’ early exit to defeat the Milwaukee Brewers 8-3 on Tuesday.
Suzuki ripped a pitch well off the inside corner for a tiebreaking, two-run shot in the fifth inning. That came one night after he hit an inside-the-park homer in the ninth to give Chicago a 2-1 lead, though the Cubs lost 5-2 in 10 innings. The team activated Suzuki from the injured list Monday after a sprained left ring finger caused him to miss about five weeks.
“He looks really comfortable,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “The timing’s back, to me. I think Seiya’s looked as good as he started.”
The Cubs needed power from Suzuki and precision from their bullpen to overcome the loss of Hendricks, who left after three innings with a sore right shoulder. He threw 69 pitches, with his velocity slightly lower than usual.
Hendricks said he felt fine before the game but could tell as soon as he threw his first warmup pitch at the start that something was off. The Cubs’ pitching staff already is at far less than full strength with Marcus Stroman, Drew Smyly, Wade Miley and Alec Mills on the injured list.
“No point in pushing it,” Hendricks said. “It’s not something that’s so bad that it’s going to get out of control, but it’s just not great. Something I’ve definitely got to get checked out to see what it’s all about.”
Chicago’s bullpen stepped up in Hendricks’ absence. Matt Swarmer (2-3), Rowan Wick and Michael Rucker combined to allow just one run over the last six innings.
Most of Milwaukee’s offense came on Rowdy Tellez’s two-run homer off Hendricks in the first inning. Tellez’s last 10…