Kenta Maeda pitched seven scoreless innings, Enrique Hernandez homered again and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 2-1 on Monday night.

 

Maeda (5-4) struck out nine and allowed three singles, helping the Dodgers improved to 16-5 in June. The Dodgers returned to Los Angeles to open a 10-game homestand after sweeping the New York Mets over the weekend in a three-game series.

 

Kenley Jansen gave up deep a sacrifice fly to Javier Baez in the ninth inning before closing out the Cubs for his 20th save.

 

Chicago lost its fifth straight after getting swept over four games at Cincinnati. The Cubs have scored a combined 13 runs over their past five games.

 

Hernandez also went deep twice Sunday. He has a career-high 13 home runs, surpassing his 12 from 2017.

 

Chris Taylor added a pinch homer in the eighth, his ninth of the season. It was the second pinch homer of his career.

 

The Dodgers had Duane Underwood Jr. on the run early in his major league debut, but they were unable to deliver the big hit. In the first inning, Matt Kemp worked a 14-pitch walk to load the bases with two outs, but Yasmani Grandal flew out to the warning track in center field.

 

The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead on Hernandez's home run to the bullpen in left field. Hernandez has hit six homers since June 7.

 

Underwood (0-1) settled down after that, walking one over the next nine batters. He gave up just two hits and a run over four innings, with three walks and three strikeouts. He threw 77 pitches, 41 in his first inning.

 

Maeda was in control while coming off a start at Chicago last week where he was removed after 3 2/3 innings. The right-hander beat the Cubs in the regular season for the first time in his career.

 

LHP Jon Lester (9-2, 2.10 ERA) will try to win his sixth consecutive start and faces the Dodgers for his second consecutive outing. RHP Ross Stripling (6-2, 1.99), who saw his six-start win streak come to an end last week at Chicago, will get another chance to beat the Cubs for the first time in his career.

 

>>The Whites Sox begin a three game set against the Twins tonight, as RHP Reynaldo Lopez (2-5, 3.59 ERA) opposes Twins RHP Lance Lynn (5-5, 4.64 ERA) in the opener.