CHICAGO – Jesús Luzardo allowed one hit over seven innings for his first win since April, and Jacob Stallings and Peyton Burdick hit back-to-back home runs as the Miami Marlins beat the Chicago Cubs 3-0 on Sunday to prevent a three-game sweep.
Yan Gomes singled with two outs in the fifth off Luzardo (3-4). Nick Madrigal’s leadoff single in the ninth against Tanner Scott was Chicago’s only other hit. Scott then got a groundout and two strikeouts for his 15th save.
“(Luzardo) got on top of his delivery,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “He’s throwing the ball in the strike zone. He’s not beating himself, he’s making teams beat him, and his stuff is good enough that they’re not going to go out there and throw up a bunch of hits against Jesús.”
Charles Leblanc opened the fifth with a double off Adrian Sampson (0-3) before Stallings put Miami on the board with his third homer of the year, a two-run drive just over the left-field fence.
Burdick connected on the next pitch for his first major league home run. He got his first career hit Saturday.
The rookie said he gave his father both keepsake balls “so I don’t lose them.”
“Luzardo was out there shoving,” Burdick said. “It was just nice to be able to get some runs, turn it over to the bullpen and let them hold it down.”
After a 56-minute rain delay at the start, Luzardo struck out six and walked one in his first win since April 30. It was only Miami’s second victory in nine games.
The 24-year-old lefty from Peru stymied Chicago with four-seam fastballs inside, two-seam fastballs away and changeups low in the zone.
“Even though it looked kind of easy and effortless in the beginning because of the pitch count, I feel like not having my slider, which is my best pitch, really kind of in my head put me in that gotta-go-to-work mode,” Luzardo said.
Sampson allowed six hits in six innings while striking out four and walking one.
“Other than (Stallings’ homer), I thought I was commanding the ball pretty well,” Sampson said. “Throwing the fastball where I want, which has been a key for me throughout this whole year. Then just fine-tuning the off-speed stuff and being able to put guys away or keep them off balance. It was a little off today in that (fifth) inning.”
Chicago had its five-game home winning streak snapped and was shut out for the seventh time this season.
“One too many breaking pitches to Stallings for the home run and then an ambush heater by Burdick, and that was the game,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “They’ve got a good staff. They pitched well this series. We were able to take two of three, but tonight we just weren’t able to capitalize.”
Anthony Bender tossed a hitless inning of relief for Miami.