Cubs club five homers in 6-0 bashing of Red Sox

The Red Sox didn t take advantage of Rob Refsnyder s first-pitch leadoff double and the Chicago Cubs made them regret it In front of a roaring crowd at Wrigley Field on Saturday night the home unit clubbed five homers in a - drubbing and took the series from their Boston visitors Michael Busch and Kyle Tucker opened the bottom of the first with back-to-back home runs Busch s was on Brayan Bello s very first pitch Vidal Bruj n s sacrifice fly in the second made Saturday the Red Sox righty s first start with more than two runs allowed earned or otherwise since June only his second such performance in seven starts since June Bello didn t yield again though he didn t manage a - - inning until his sixth and final frame He worked around Pete Crow-Armstrong s two-out single and stolen base in the third Nico Hoerner s one-out single in the fourth and Busch s leadoff single in the fifth The Red Sox righty exited after six charged with three earned runs on six hits one walk and four strikeouts He threw pitches for strikes and induced swings and misses Against reliever Chris Murphy the Cubs fared better The wind was blowing toward the outfield and they rode it to the finish line Matt Shaw pinch-hitting for Bruj n with one out in the seventh homered to left On the mound again for the eighth Crow-Armstrong and Ian Happ greeted Murphy with back-to-back bombs All the while the Red Sox went expeditiously and quietly Refsnyder s first-inning knock proved to be one of their only opportunities against Shota Imanaga and the Cubs The Red Sox usually so capable against lefties identified themselves twisting into pretzels trying to do anything with his pitches strikes He induced swings-and-misses and struck out five in seven scoreless innings The Red Sox went for with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base Imanaga had to work around five hits and a walk but Connor Wong bailed him out of the only two notable jams Masataka Yoshida and Abraham Toro lined a pair of two-out singles in the second and the Red Sox catcher flew out to Tucker in shallow right A near-identical situation presented itself in the seventh when Yoshida and Toro again singled with two outs This time however they stood on first and third and watched Wong fly out on the first pitch feet to second baseman Hoerner Adding insult to injury the Cubs used several Red Sox castoffs in the contest Reese McGuire caught for Imanaga Brad Keller relieved the Cubs starter in the top of the eighth and struck out the side including Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu who pinch-hit for Refsnyder and Gonzalez respectively When it seemed like it couldn t get any more frustrating Ryan Brasier took the mound to close his former club out The -year-old World Series champion entered Saturday s contest with a career-best ERA over outings The Red Sox are familiar with this type of post-Boston success with Brasier specifically and countless other old friends who suddenly become un-hittable in another uniform When they unloaded Brasier and his ERA during the season he posted a sterling mark with the Dodgers the rest of the way even dominating at Fenway soon after the contract Brasier struck out Roman Anthony and Trevor Story then worked around Ceddanne Rafaela s single by getting Yoshida to ground out The first series of the second half goes to the Cubs The Red Sox have scored one run over innings this weekend The Cubs were invariably going to be a far more formidable opponent than the Nationals and Rockies against whom the Red Sox collected the first six of their -game win streak before the All-Star break But this sort of midsummer malaise isn t new Last year the Red Sox entered the break on a high note in possession of one of the American League s three wild cards then opened the second half of the season by getting swept by the Dodgers in Los Angeles And for the third year in a row the Red Sox own a - record through their first games