Travis Wood hit a three-run homer and drove in four runs to back his nine-strikeout performance on the mound, leading the Chicago Cubs to a 5-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night.
Wood (1-2) gave up a run and six hits over seven innings. His four RBIs and nine strikeouts matched career highs.
Bronson Arroyo (1-2) allowed five runs and eight hits in 5 1-3 innings for Arizona. The Diamondbacks have lost nine of 10 games and have the worst record in the majors (5-17).
Welington Castillo hit a two-out bloop single to right field to score Starlin Castro from second for a 1-0 lead in the second inning.
Ryan Kalish followed Castillo's RBI single with a single of his own to extend the inning. Bronson Arroyo fell behind in the count 1-0 before Wood hit a hanging slider for a three-run shot into the left field bleachers. It was Wood's seventh career home run.
Wood drove in another run in the fourth with an RBI double that nicked off Arizona center fielder Tony Campana's glove near the wall. Arroyo stranded Wood at second by getting Emilio Bonifacio to ground out to end the fourth, but Wood's fourth RBI gave the Cubs a 5-0 lead.
Diamondbacks left fielder Mark Trumbo hit his MLB-leading seventh home run in the seventh. Trumbo hit the first pitch he saw from Wood into the center field bleachers to cut the Cubs' lead to 5-1.
Chicago Baseball
One of the Diamondbacks' best chances to score against Wood came in the sixth. Arroyo led off with a broken-bat single to left field and Chris Owings singled to put runners on first and second with nobody out. But Wood struck out Hill, got Paul Goldschmidt to fly out to right field and forced Martin Prado to pop out in foul territory to strand the runners.
The Cubs had a prime opportunity to blow the game open in the sixth. However, they failed to score with the bases loaded and no one out.
