Now that the Diamondbacks have managed to cool off the Cubs, they'll try to remain undefeated with Patrick Corbin on the mound. Looking to go 9-0 and match the team record for consecutive wins to open a season, the left-hander faces the Cubs on Sunday at Wrigley Field.
Corbin (8-0, 1.71 ERA) became the third Arizona pitcher to start 8-0 after he battled through six innings, allowing four runs and seven hits in six innings of a 6-5 win over San Diego last Sunday. The NL West-leading Diamondbacks (31-24) are 10-0 when he takes the ball in 2013.
Brandon Webb, the 2006 NL Cy Young award winner, started 9-0 for the Diamondbacks in 2008.
"Corbin, you can see why his stats are what they are," Padres manager Bud Black said. "That is a live left arm, it really is. A live fastball, good slider and occasionally a solid changeup."
This will be Corbin's first start against the Cubs (23-31), but he did throw a scoreless inning during an 8-1 loss at Wrigley last July 13.
Chicago outscored its opponents 36-12 during a season-high five-game winning streak that ended with a 12-4 loss Saturday in a game that started after a 2-hour, 21-minute rain delay.
Paul Goldschmidt hit his first career grand slam and Jason Kubel delivered a three-run double as the Diamondbacks erased a two-run deficit by scoring 11 times over the final three innings. Arizona set a season high for runs and recorded 17 hits for the second time this year while snapping a four-game road slide.
The Diamondbacks totaled five runs while losing their previous four at Wrigley, where they won for the second time in 11 contests.
Goldschmidt, who hit .376 with seven homers and 23 RBIs in May, struck out his first three times against Jeff Samardzija on Saturday before going deep off Carlos Marmol.
"Samardzija's stuff was really good, but you get a chance to win the game in the eighth or ninth, you can't live in the past," Goldschmidt said. "It's a game of failure. It's what the game is all about."
Willie Bloomquist went 3 for 4 with two runs scored in his season debut, which was delayed two months by a strained oblique. He's hit .423 (11 for 26) in his last six games against the Cubs.
Nate Schierholtz homered for one of his two hits for Chicago, which was held to three after averaging 9.6 hits in the previous five games.
Rain has interrupted the last two outings by scheduled Cubs starter Edwin Jackson (1-7, 6.11). The right-hander gave up four runs and six hits in three innings when the skies opened up in a 4-2 loss in Pittsburgh on May 23. Jackson was much sharper Tuesday while throwing 2 1/3 scoreless innings and had a 2-0 lead when rain ultimately postponed that contest against the White Sox.
"It's just one of those things," Jackson told the Cubs' official website. "Sometimes when you have a season like I'm having, that's how it is. You feel good and something happens, and you feel bad and something happens. It's kind of awkward, back-to-back rainouts. That might be a first."
In Jackson's last uninterrupted start in Washington on May 11, he yielded two runs in 5 1/3 innings of an 8-2 win.
The ex-Diamondback is 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA in six starts against his former team.
