EditorsNote: Deleted "Buster" in 6th graf
Kyle Hendricks outdueled Jeff Samardzija in a battle of right-handers Thursday afternoon, and the Chicago Cubs completed a three-game sweep of the visiting San Francisco Giants with a 1-0 victory.
Anthony Rizzo's two-out single scored Jason Heyward in the fourth inning with the game's only run, sending the Cubs to their fifth straight win. Chicago had two hits in the fourth -- and none the rest of the game.
Hendricks (9-9) went seven innings, allowing three hits and no walks. He struck out seven. The 29-year-old allowed just one Giant to reach scoring position, that coming in the second inning when Brandon Belt lashed a one-out double.
The only other hits off Hendricks were singles by Buster Posey in the fourth inning and Samardzija in the sixth.
The closest the Giants came to scoring came when Brandon Crawford smacked a two-out triple off Brandon Kintzler in the eighth. But left-hander Kyle Ryan came on to strike out pinch-hitter Austin Slater to retain the 1-0 lead.
Ryan stayed on to get Mike Yastrzemski to ground out leading off the ninth before Rowan Wick recorded his second save by striking out Posey and getting Alex Dickerson on a comebacker.
The shutout was the 10th of the season for the Cubs, the third started by Hendricks.
Heyward led off the fourth with a single after Samardzija (9-10) had retired the first nine batters in order.
The Cubs caught a break when Crawford, playing shortstop, booted Nicholas Castellanos' grounder, but the next batter, Kris Bryant, grounded into a double play.
Rizzo followed with his run-scoring single to center.
Samardzija, who began his career with the Cubs and was dealt in July 2014, five days before Hendricks debuted in Chicago, gave up just two hits and one run in seven innings. He walked one and struck out four.
The loss was the Giants' fourth in a row and dropped them to 3-4 on a nine-game trip.
--Field Level Media
