CHICAGO (AP) – Pedro Strop, who suffered a hamstring injury, handed the ball to Jorge De La Rosa for the ninth inning.

And it worked.

De La Rosa, 37, earned three outs for his first career stop, helping the Cubs to dominate the Cincinnati Reds 3-2 on Friday night.

Ian Happ hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning, while Chicago, leader of NL Central, was 1-1 / 2 in front of Milwaukee, who beat Pittsburgh 7-4. Ben Zobrist had three wins and Dillon Maples (1-0) earned his first career win.

De La Rosa gave Curt Casali a double and led Billy Hamilton with two drops before Scott Schebler came to center. This was the first opportunity to win for Chicago, as Strop put his hand on the left thigh while attempting to beat a double-play player in the 4-3 win in Washington on Thursday, thus putting him out of contention. test the rest of the regular season.

Strop had sought to get closer to Brandon Morrow, who is on the injured list with a right arm injury.

After Cole Hamels allowed two points in 6 innings and 2/3, Maples got the final in seventh place, Jaime Garcia finished eighth and De La Rosa eliminated him in his 426th game in the major league .

Maddon called it "unlikely bull".

"The march to Hamilton made things interesting, but (De La Rosa) was very calm," he said. "The first big league saves, wow … it's good for him."

Happ? S Homer was just his second in 22 games. The 24-year-old striker batted .186 during the period.

"It's been a while since I've had one," said Happ. "To get a shot in this situation after what we had to do these past two weeks, to give us a chance to win a baseball game, it was great."

Cincinnati had won four of six games, including two out of three against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Reds in last place lost a great start to Matt Harvey, who eliminated six of the six unmarked innings.

"It was just a matter of getting ahead," Harvey said. "The great thing was to be able to mix different shots for a goal and throw it when I wanted to."

"It was the first time in a long time that the four shots were doing exactly what I wanted."

Cincinnati took the lead in consecutive Jose Peraza and Joey Votto games in the fourth, but Chicago rallied after Harvey's replacement by David Hernandez (5-1).

Victor Caratini led the seventh with a single and David Bote reached an error on third baseman Eugenio Suarez. After batter Tommy La Stella struck in a PTO, Happ led a 1-0 shot in the center-left bleachers.

Hamels dropped seven players to increase his career total to 2396, making Sandy Koufax 48th in the all-time list. He is 4-0 in nine starts since he's been acquired in an exchange with Texas.

CONUNDRUM CLOSE

Strop has made 11 saves on 13 occasions since Morrow was added to the mailing list in July. He is 6-1 with a score of 2.26 ERA on 59 2/3 innings in 60 appearances.

Unless the Cubs could trade, Maddon said he was considering a closer approach to the committee, including veterans Steve Cishek, Justin Wilson and Jesse Chavez.

TRAINER ROOM

Reds: RHP Lucas Sims is sidelined with pressure on the right side. "He has something to do with his lat, he's not available to launch now," said manager Jim Riggleman.

Cubs: Morrow (inflammation of the right bicep) must launch a simulated game on Saturday. … Maddon said: OF Jason Heyward (hamstring tightening) could come back next week.

FOLLOWING

LHP Reds Cody Reed (0-2, 5.08 ERA) will face Cubs Jon Lester (15-6, 3.57 ERA) on Saturday. Lester lost his last start Monday in Milwaukee, coming out after 5 2/3 innings with a contraction on the back.

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