Yu Darvish took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in his third straight dominant start, and the major league-leading Chicago Cubs defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 4-2 on Thursday night.

Darvish (3-1) allowed just one hit - Justin Smoak's towering solo homer to right field with one out in the seventh inning on his 98th pitch - before Casey Sadler relieved to start the eighth. The 33-year-old right-hander from Japan struck out 11 and threw 104 pitches.

Before Smoak's drive, Darvish allowed only three baserunners. He walked Ben Gamel in the second and Orlando Arcia in the fifth, and hit Christian Yelich with a low pitch in the first.

Darvish notched his final two strikeouts, both swinging, around Smoak's homer.

Kyle Schwarber hit a solo homer in the second as Chicago improved to 13-3 for the first time since 1907. Javier Baez, Ian Happ and David Bote each had an RBI.

Sadler worked around a single by Arcia in a scoreless eighth. Rowan Wick allowed a single by Avisail Garcia and a ground-rule double to Smoak with two outs in the ninth for Milwaukee's second run, but closed it out for his third save and a combined four-hitter.

Cubs slugger Kris Bryant was held out of the starting lineup with a sore left wrist and ring finger.

With Bryant out, Schwarber started in left field and Bote at third base.

The Cubs jumped ahead 1-0 in the first. Nico Hoerner laced Brett Anderson's first pitch for a double and scored on Baez's groundout.

Schwarber led off the second with an opposite-field shot to left to make it 2-0.

Chicago tacked on two more runs in the sixth off reliever Corbin Burnes. Happ drove in the first with a double and Bote followed with an RBI single.

Darvish's pitch count was piling up entering the seventh. There was no doubt on Smoak's drive, which sailed out to right. Before that, the hardest-hit ball off Darvish was Yelich's liner straight at right fielder Steven Souza Jr. leading off the fourth.

Anderson (0-2) allowed two runs in 4 1/3 innings.