NL Scores: Cubs Nip Giants, Braves Rally Over Nats, Cards Blank Brewers

Cubs NewsStarlin Castro  Redeemed himself for miss playing a routine grounder that led to four unearned runs  with a home run and a double in the ninth inning gave the Chicago Cubs a 4-3 win over the San Francisco Giants. The Cubs trailed 3-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth after Kyuji Fujikawa blew the save but pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro, batting for Alberto Gonzalez, led off and connected for a wind-blown homer off Giants closer Sergio Romo  to tie it.

Giants starter Matt Cain pitched seven innings allowing two earned runs and striking out six in the loss. Carlos Villanueva pitched into the eighth for Chicago striking out three and allowing no runs.  After blowing the save Fujikawa got the win,  albeit after allowing three earned runs.

 Atlanta 6-Washington 4 Ramiro Pena hit a two-run homer off Craig Stammen with two outs in the 10th, and the Braves stretched their winning streak to seven games by coming back to beat NL East rival Washington 6-4 on Friday night.  Bryce Harper homered for Washington and Chris Johnson homered off Ross Detwiler in the seventh inning for the Braves.

 Pittsburgh 6-Cincinnati 5  Andrew McCutchen hit a home run in the seventh inning and had three RBI to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates past the Cincinnati Reds 6-5. The Pirates had 12 hits on the evening and the first four batters in Pittsburgh lineup Starling MarteNeil Walker, McCutchen and Garrett Jones  at two hits each.  Jason Grilli earned his fourth save of the season for Pittsburgh.

Philadelphia 3-Miami  Chase Utley  triple to right field scoring Ben Revere and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Miami Marlins 3-1.  Utley later scored on Mike Young‘s infield single.

St. Louis 2-Milwaukee 0  St. Louis rookie right-hander  Shelby Miller allowed one hit over seven innings and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers and Kyle Lohse 2-0 .  Mitchell Boggs recorded the say for St. Louis as Miller moved to 2-0  on the season.  Miller has now worked 13 scoreless innings in two career starts at Bush Stadium.

 Arizona 3-Los Angeles 0  Arizona’s Patrick Corbin outpitched Los Angeles dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw to beat the Dodgers 3-0 at Chase Field in Arizona. “He was throwing the ball really well,” Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said. “He had great command and it helped us going down the road in our bullpen in extra innings. He was solid the whole game and threw the ball very well. He was up against a great pitcher in Kershaw and matched him pitch for pitch.” Kershaw (2-1) struck out nine, leaving him one shy of 1,000 for his career, but left trailing 1-0 after the Diamondbacks loaded the bases with one out in the eighth inning. J.J Putz  earned the save for Arizona

Colorado 7 – San Diego 5  Dexter Fowler hit two home runs to lead the Colorado Rockies to a 7-5 victory over the San Diego Padres. Fowler totaled 15 home runs in his first three full seasons before setting a career high with 13 last year and has 6 this year. Padres slugger Carlos Quentin was in the cleanup spot after appealing an eight-game suspension for his role in a wild fight with the Los Angeles Dodgers the previous night.