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Wada solid as Cubs take down Brewers

Aug 14, 2014 - 4:03 AM Chicago, IL (SportsNetwork.com) - Javier Baez and Anthony Rizzo hit back-to- back home runs in the third inning and a Cubs rookie downed the Brewers for the second straight night as Chicago pulled out a 4-2 victory on Wednesday.

A day after Kyle Hendricks helped pitch the Cubs to a shutout win, Tsuyoshi Wada (2-1) held Milwaukee scoreless into the seventh before consecutive home runs by Rickie Weeks and Martin Maldonado ended his night.

"Kyle and Wada have really stepped up and it's been nice," Rizzo said.

Wada only allowed three other hits and was backed by three hits apiece from Chris Coghlan and Starlin Castro, who also drove in a run.

Kyle Lohse (11-7) gave up all four runs on seven hits to take the loss, the third in four games for the NL Central leaders.

Lohse suffered an ankle injury during his at-bat in the top of the inning but stayed in the game and served up long balls to Baez and Rizzo.

"It didn't feel right...and I tweaked it checking a swing," Lohse said. "I couldn't push off the way I wanted to."

The blasts made it 4-0 after the Cubs had scored twice in the first courtesy of Rizzo's sacrifice fly and Castro's RBI single.

Lohse did not come back out for the fourth, and Marco Estrada threw four scoreless innings to keep the Brewers within striking distance.

Weeks and Maldonado made things interesting, but Justin Grimm, Neil Ramirez and Hector Rondon combined to keep Milwaukee off the board the rest of the way. Rondon picked up his 16th save with a perfect ninth.

Game Notes

Castro is riding a 12-game hitting streak ... Cubs starting pitchers have thrown seven consecutive quality outings ... Thursday's finale of this four- game series pits Milwaukee's Mike Fiers against Edwin Jackson.