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Leake seeks to remain unbeaten versus Cubs

Aug 5, 2011 - 2:45 PM (Sports Network) - Cincinnati right-hander Mike Leake goes for a fourth straight victory against the Chicago Cubs today when the Reds open a three- game weekend series with the hosts at Wrigley Field.

Leake, a second-year product of Arizona State University, is 3-0 in four lifetime starts against the Cubs while allowing nine runs on 26 hits across 27 2/3 innings.

He last faced Chicago on June 6 in Cincinnati and was touched for 10 hits but just two runs across eight innings in an 8-2 victory.

The 23-year-old is 4-4 in eight decisions since then, including a 7-2 win over San Francisco in his last start on July 30, when he gave up an earned run and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings.

The Reds are 5-5 in Leake's last 10 starts.

For the Cubs, righty Ryan Dempster faces his former team for the 40th time in his 509th career big-league outing.

Dempster evened his career record at 110-110 in his most recent outing, scattering seven hits and three runs across six innings of a 6-3 win at St. Louis.

He's 6-7 with five saves against Cincinnati with a 3.97 earned run average in 118 innings.

The British Columbia native made 35 starts in 37 appearances for the Reds in 2002-03, going 8-12 in between his stops in Florida and Chicago.

On Thursday in Pittsburgh, Marlon Byrd had the 1,000th hit of his career in the fourth and drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning as the Cubs capped a four-game sweep of the Pirates with a 7-6 win.

Blake DeWitt hit a two-run home run while Carlos Pena added a solo shot and two RBI for the Cubs, who have won a season-high five straight and swept a four-game set in Pittsburgh for the first time since June 5-7, 1959.

Rodrigo Lopez lasted just four innings in the start and gave up six runs on seven hits with two walks. Jeff Samardzija (6-4) got the win for throwing the seventh inning.

On Wednesday in Houston, the Astros' Jordan Lyles pitched seven strong innings and J.D. Martinez drove in four runs, and together the rookies led their team to a 5-4 victory against the Reds in the rubber match of a three-game series.

Reds starter Dontrelle Willis was in search of his first victory of the season, having gone winless in his first four starts. He pitched well, giving up two runs in six innings, and helped himself by swatting a go-ahead homer in the seventh.

With two outs, Lyles hung a slider and Willis crushed it to right field for a 3-2 lead. But the Reds' bullpen couldn't hold on.

The Reds are 18-6 versus the Cubs since the start of last season.