(SportsNetwork.com) - With a major league-low five wins this season, the Milwaukee Brewers will be happy to get center fielder Carlos Gomez back into their lineup Saturday afternoon to inject some offense into a team that was shut out on Friday afternoon.
The Brewers resume a three-game series with the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
Gomez has been on the disabled list since April 17 with a strained right hamstring. Last season, he produced 23 homers and 73 RBI with 34 doubles and 34 steals in 148 games and was named an All-Star for the second time in his career.
Gomez and the rest of the Brewers, who have just five wins on the season, go against Jake Arrieta and a Cubs team that has won five of their last six games. Arrieta has won both of his last two starts, on the road against the Pirates and Reds. Last Sunday at Cincinnati, he pitched six innings and allowed two runs on four hits with three walks and six strikeouts. The right- hander has a career record of 2-2 with a 2.59 ERA in five starts against the Brewers.
Mike Fiers aims for his first win of the season for the Brewers. The 29-year- old right-hander didn't get a decision Sunday versus the Cardinals when he surrendered two runs -- one earned -- on nine hits and two walks in four-plus innings. He is 2-1 with a 1.77 ERA in four games (3 starts) against the Cubs.
On Friday, Jon Lester threw seven scoreless innings and Addison Russell hit his first major league home run in the Cubs' 1-0 win to open the three-game series at Wrigley Field.
Lester (1-2) earned his first win as a Cub after he struck out four and only allowed three hits and a walk. Pedro Strop threw a 1-2-3 eighth and Hector Rondon recorded his fifth save.
Wily Peralta (0-4) struck out six and only allowed a run in six innings but remained winless on the season. Gerardo Parra and Jason Rogers had two hits apiece.
"We haven't won two in a row all year," said Milwaukee's Ryan Braun. "Pitchers threw the ball well, we played well defensively, but didn't have many good at- bats."
After getting three hits but no runs in their first at-bat, the Cubs got what they hope is a glimpse of the future when Russell, their star shortstop prospect, hit a Peralta fastball into the bleachers in the third inning.
"It was a great moment for him and his family, and for us," said Cubs manager Joe Maddon.
A win Saturday or Sunday would make the Cubs unbeaten in four straight series (of two or more games) for the first time since a six series stretch, June 25- July 19, 2012.
The Cubs got the better of Milwaukee in last year's season series, winning 11 of 19 meetings.
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