Riley Greene, Trey Sweeney, and Kerry Carpenter all hit home runs, leading the Detroit Tigers to an 8-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night.
Detroit won for the seventh time in their last nine games, rebounding well after losing 3-1 to Chicago in the first game of the series on Tuesday.
Greene, Sweeney, Carpenter, and Parker Meadows, who had three hits from the leadoff spot, were part of a lineup featuring seven left-handed batters against Cubs right-hander Jameson Taillon.
“Pretty impressive offensive contribution from a lot of guys,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said.
Brant Hurter (1-1), the second of five Detroit pitchers, threw 3 2/3 innings to earn his first win in his fourth major league appearance. The 6-foot-6 left-hander was hit by a comebacker from Seiya Suzuki in the sixth inning but continued to pitch to one more batter.
Chicago, which is trying to close the gap for the third NL wild card spot, fell to 10-7 in August after winning three of four games.
Christian Bethancourt hit a two-run homer off Hurter in the fifth inning, but the Cubs (62-65) left six runners on base on manager Craig Counsell’s 54th birthday. Taillon (8-8) pitched five innings, allowing six hits.
“I feel like the first couple innings were a little out of character,” Counsell said about Taillon’s performance. “The misses were a little bigger than usual and having a little hard time getting ahead of hitters, and they took advantage of it.”
The Tigers pulled ahead by scoring four runs in the ninth inning against Jack Neely in his major league debut. Greene drove in Zach McKinstry with a single, and Carpenter hit a three-run homer on a 3-0 fastball for his 12th home run of the season.
“I was just on the heater and, looking for it literally in a certain spot,” Carpenter said. “And if it’s in that spot, I just want to go.”
Detroit (62-65) took the lead when Sweeney hit his first home run in his third major league game. With Jace Jung on base after a leadoff walk in the second inning, Sweeney hit a 2-1 curveball into the basket in center field at Wrigley Field.
