Kyle Tucker had three hits including his first homer of the season, rookie Matt Shaw hit his first major league homer and the Chicago Cubs held off the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-3 in Phoenix on Saturday.
Tucker’s two-run homer off Brandon Pfaadt (0-1) with one out in the fifth inning gave the Cubs a 3-1 lead. Shaw homered as a pinch hitter to open the seventh to make it 4-1.
Arizona’s Eugenio Suarez followed Josh Naylor’s single with a two-run homer to open the last of the ninth inning off Ryan Pressly before Gabriel Moreno singled.
Ketel Marte walked with two outs and Corbin Carroll squibbed a grounder toward shortstop Dansby Swanson, who bluffed a throw to first base and chased down pinch runner Garrett Hampson after he rounded third base for the final out on the fielder’s choice.
Suarez has four homers in three games.
Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga (1-0) gave up one run on three hits in seven innings, with four strikeouts and two walks in his second start of the season.
Imanaga did not give up a hit in four scoreless innings but did not get a decision in the Cubs’ season-opening 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Tokyo on March 18.
Pressly got his first save after allowing four hits, two runs and one walk with one strikeout in the ninth.
Pfaadt gave up six hits and three runs in six innings in his first appearance since signing a five-year, $45 million contract extension that starts in 2026. He struck out five and walked one.
The Diamondbacks took a 1-0 in the second inning, after Randal Grichuk led off with a double and Imanaga walked Suarez and Moreno with one out. Grichuk scored on Jake McCarthy’s dribbler to first base, and Imanaga got Geraldo Perdomo to pop out to leave runners on second and third.
Miguel Amaya doubled in Pete Crow-Armstrong from first base with two outs in the fourth inning to tie the game 1-1.
Naylor doubled to open the Arizona fourth, but he was thrown out attempting to take third base on a fly out to center fielder Crow-Armstrong to complete an inning-ending double play.
The Cubs’ Jon Berti hit an opposite-field single to right field to open the fifth inning before Tucker hit a changeup for a 405-foot homer to right field. Shaw’s homer to left was measured at 379 feet.
–Field Level Media
