CHICAGO _ Albert Almora Jr.'s tiebreaking line-drive into the left-field basket at Wrigley Field in the seventh inning propelled the Cubs to a 4-1 win over the Brewers before 41,186 on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon.
The Cubs have won the first two games of the three-game series to improve to 38-18 at home. They moved into a first-place tie with the Cardinals, who play Saturday night in Oakland, Calif.
The Brewers fell three games behind the co-leaders.
Cole Hamels pitched five shutout innings in his first start since going on the injured list with an oblique strain on June 29.Catcher Willson Contreras came out of the game in the seventh after lining out to center field and pulling up lame with an apparent hamstring injury.
After reliever Rowan Wick (1-1) escaped a jam in the top of the seventh, Almora hit a one-out homer off Junior Guerra (3-3) to snap a 1-1 tie. The Cubs added a pair in the eighth against Freddy Peralta on Javier Baez's RBI single and Almora's sacrifice fly.
Closer Craig Kimbrel, the sixth Cubs reliever, pitched a scoreless ninth for his ninth save.
The Cubs came into the day batting .233 against left-handers, ranked 29th in the major leagues. They were last in the National League with a 25.9 strikeout percentage against lefties. Brewers lefthander Gio Gonzalez limited them to one run, five hits and a walk while striking out five in 4? innings.
The Cubs took the lead in the second when Baez tripled to the right-field corner and scored on a wild pitch by Gonzalez. Hamels was lifted after five shutout innings; he struck out six while yielding four hits and no walks in a 74-pitch outing.
Lorenzo Cain started the sixth by beating out an infield chopper to shortstop against reliever David Phelps. Baez barehanded the ball and fired to first for an apparent out, but the call was overturned on replay.
Phelps walked Christian Yelich on four pitches to put two on with no outs. After retiring the next two hitters, Phelps got ahead of Ryan Braun 0-2 before hanging a slider that he hit into center for a single that brought home Cain with the tying run.
But that was all the offense the Brewers could mustered as the Cubs won for the tenth time in their last 12 games at Wrigley.
The Cubs go for the sweep Sunday afternoon with Yu Darvish facing the Brewers' Adrian Houser.
