Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Chi. Cubs 5, Miami 1
When: 8:05 PM ET, Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Where: Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois
Temperature: 78°
Umpires: Home - Derryl Cousins, 1B - Ron Kulpa, 2B - Alan Porter, 3B - Jim Wolf
Attendance: 34934

Cubs 5, Marlins 1 (8): Geovany Soto’s RBI single in the seventh inning broke a 1-1 tie and Jeff Samardzija struck out nine in five frames as host Chicago snapped a six-game losing streak to Miami in a game shortened to 7 1/3 innings because of rain.

Miami’s Jose Reyes and Chicago’s Starlin Castro traded solo home runs before the Cubs broke the game open with four runs in the seventh inning to win for the 13th time in their last 18 games.

Samardzija allowed one run and six hits. James Russell (3-0) earned the victory by pitching a scoreless seventh inning.

Florida’s Josh Johnson (5-7) yielded four runs, five hits and struck out five in 6 1/3 innings.

Alfonso Soriano, who was 2-for-18 against Johnson and had one hit in his last 26 at-bats with eight strikeouts against the Marlins, led off the seventh with an infield hit. After advancing to second on a wild pitch and third on a groundout, Soriano came home when Soto chopped a 2-2 pitch over the head of third baseman Hanley Ramirez.

After Mike Dunn relieved Johnson, Jeff Baker delivered a two-run double and David DeJesus added a sacrifice fly to complete the uprising.

With a stiff breeze blowing in from right field, Reyes roped a high fastball through the wind and into the bleachers to give Miami a 1-0 lead in the third.

Castro tied it in the fourth inning when he jumped on Johnson’s first pitch – a hanging curveball – and drove it into the basket above the ivy-covered wall in left-center field.

GAME NOTEBOOK:
Miami had outscored Chicago 48-19 during the winning streak. … The Marlins’ Carlos Lee was 0-for-1 with three walks, one night after hitting his 17th career grand slam. … Miami’s Omar Infante went 1-for-4 and is 18-for-40 in 13 games at Wrigley Field.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Miami   Chi. Cubs
Josh Johnson Player Jeff Samardzija
Loss W/L No Decision
6.1 IP 5.0
5 Strikeouts 9
5 Hits 6
5.68 ERA 1.80
Hitting
Miami   Chi. Cubs
Emilio Bonifacio Player Darwin Barney
3 Hits 2
0 RBI 0
0 HR 0
6 TB 2
.750 Avg .667
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Miami 8 1 14 .267 19 12 1 4 0 0
Chi. Cubs 7 1 11 .259 6 5 5 2 0 1