Gunnar Henderson belted a three-run homer in the four-run eighth inning to lift the visiting Baltimore Orioles to a 4-3 win against the Chicago Cubs in the middle game of their three-game series on Saturday afternoon.
Ryan Brasier replaced Cubs starter Matthew Boyd to start the eighth inning and walked the leadoff batter on four pitches before giving up a single to Jeremiah Jackson.
Caleb Thielbar (2-3) replaced Brasier with one out and surrendered an RBI single to Jordan Westburg to cut it to 3-1 and end an 18-inning scoreless streak for Baltimore.
Henderson then stepped up and blasted a home run into the wind in dead center to give the Orioles a 4-3 lead.
Orioles right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano went five innings, allowing three runs and five hits while striking out five and walking one.
Corbin Martin, Grant Wolfram (2-0) and Yennier Cano combined for three shutout innings before Keegan Akin pitched the ninth for his first save of the season.
Westburg had two hits, an RBI, and a run scored. Jackson also had two hits for the Orioles, who lost the series opener 1-0 on Friday afternoon.
Willi Castro tripled, singled, and scored twice in his team debut and Nico Hoerner contributed three hits and two RBIs for the Cubs, who had won two in a row.
Boyd allowed four hits over seven shutout innings. He struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter.
Sugano got the first out of the second inning before Ian Happ doubled to right on a 3-2 pitch. Castro, who was acquired from the Minnesota Twins on Thursday, hit a sinking liner to left that was originally ruled a catch by Colton Cowser, but the umpires convened and quickly changed it to a hit.
Happ remained at second but scored when Hoerner belted a line drive into the left-field corner that stuck in the ivy for a ground-rule double, scoring Happ for a 1-0 lead and putting runners on second and third.
Reese McGuire followed with a sacrifice fly to left to drive in Castro for a 2-0 lead.
Castro tripled to center with one out in the fourth and Hoerner followed with an RBI single to right to make it 3-0.
–Field Level Media
