Freddy Peralta allowed one hit over six shutout innings to help the visiting Milwaukee Brewers to a 7-0 win against the Chicago Cubs on Monday afternoon in the opener of their doubleheader and a four-game series.
Peralta (15-5) won his third straight start and improved his career-best win total after striking out six and walking three.
Brice Turang and Caleb Durbin each hit solo home runs and drove in two runs, and Joey Ortiz had two hits, an RBI and run scored and Sal Frelick had two hits and scored twice for the Cubs, whose franchise-record 14-game winning streak was ended by the Cincinnati Reds in a 3-2 win in 10 innings on Sunday.
Cubs starter Cade Horton (7-4) was trying to win his fifth straight start after allowing just one run over his previous 28 1/3 innings. However, he was lifted after 2 2/3 innings because of a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand.
Horton allowed one run and four hits, striking out three and walking one.
Turang gave the Brewers a 1-0 lead in the third inning with his 13th home run of the season and seventh in the past 14 games. He went the other way with a tailing fastball and deposited it over the fence in left.
After Durbin followed with a double, the Cubs training staff came out to check on Horton’s pitching hand. He got the second out, but a walk and a hit batter ended his day. Drew Pomeranz came in and got Blake Perkins to ground out to end the threat.
Durbin came up in the bottom half of the fifth and lifted a 419-foot home run to left off Taylor Rogers for a 2-0 lead.
Cubs reliever Luke Little threw nine straight balls after getting the first two outs in the sixth. Ortiz then hit a slow dribbler up the first base line and Little’s throw glanced off Ortiz and continued up the first-base line, scoring a run to make it 3-0.
Chicago reliever Gavin Hollowell walked three more batters in a row in the eighth and Ortiz and Turang followed with RBI singles for a 5-0 lead.
Durbin drove in another run on a fielder’s choice and one more run scored in the inning on a wild pitch to make it 7-0.
