Cubs extend home win streak to 11 with sweep over D-backs

CHICAGO – The Cubs have learned to embrace some of the chaotic elements of Wrigley Field, trying to use the elements to their advantage at times. Take a day like Sunday, when the wind had the flags rattling the poles around the ballpark as it howled out and toyed with fly balls.

Michael Busch knew to run hard out of the box on what looked like a routine flyout to center in the second inning of the Cubs’ 8-4 win over the D-backs. Statcast gave it a 3% hit probability, but that does not factor in the Friendly Confines of it all.

The ball dropped in past a diving center fielder Jorge Barrosa, and Busch hustled into second with an unlikely double that got the Cubs’ offense rolling. The North Siders rolled right to a sweep of Arizona and an 11th consecutive win at home, representing the longest streak at Wrigley for the Cubs since a 14-game run between May and June in 2008.

Following Busch’s fluky two-out double, Carson Kelly came through with an RBI single off D-backs starter Merrill Kelly. Then in the third, rookie Moisés Ballesteros launched an opposite-field, two-run homer off Kelly for his sixth shot of the season. Chicago added three more in the fifth and another pair of runs in the seventh, blowing things open.

In the fifth, Ian Happ challenged a called third strike on a 2-2 count and saw the pitch overturned to a ball. The Cubs left fielder went on to draw a walk, extending his career-best on-base streak to 24 games and loading the bases in the process. That set things up again for Busch, who pulled a Kelly pitch into the right-field corner for a three-run triple.

The Cubs’ all-around offensive showing backed a quality start from left-hander Matthew Boyd, who limited Arizona to two runs over his six frames. Gabriel Moreno belted a two-run homer off Boyd in the second, but the lefty was stingy from that point on. Boyd ended with five strikeouts and one walk in helping Chicago to the victory.