CHICAGO (AP) — Brett Anderson said he owes Albert Almora Jr. his paycheck from Thursday.
The center fielder said a high-five or a fist bump will do.
Anderson beat his former team with five solid innings, and Almora made two outstanding catches against the ivy as the Chicago Cubs blanked the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-0.
Anderson (1-0) won in his Wrigley Field debut for the Cubs. The lefty lowered his ERA to 0.84 through two starts with his new club.
Anderson, the only member of the Cubs without a World Series ring after Wednesday’s celebration, allowed three hits but walked four. He stranded seven runners, helped by Almora’s defense.
“Those are plays that you don’t expect to be made behind you and he made two web gems,” Anderson said. “You don’t ever want to have to have those guys make those plays behind you, but it was one of those days where it was a grind from pitch one.”
Almora went high and hard into the ivy to rob Corey Seager, the second batter of the game, of extra bases.
Kyle Schwarber tried to match him in the third inning, but his bobbled catch of Kiki Hernandez’s fly to deep left field was overturned after replay showed the ball hit the vines before he controlled it.
The replay took 3 minutes, 55 seconds before it was reversed and Hernandez was awarded second base.
Almora later prevented Seager of another extra-base hit, stranding Hernandez with a running catch on the warning track with his back to home plate.
Earlier this season, Almora made a leaping catch at the wall in St. Louis at a key moment.
Anthony Rizzo and Addison Russell hit long solo home runs, their first of the season. Both came off Hyun-Jin Ryu (0-2).
Rizzo’s drive to right field in the first inning opened the scoring and sent a fan’s beer all over the bleachers. Russell’s homer to left in the fourth landed on Waveland Avenue.
This was a rematch of last year’s NL Championship Series and produced three entertaining games, with the Cubs taking two.
Carl Edwards Jr. threw two scoreless innings in relief, and Koji Uehara and Wade Davis threw one apiece for the Cubs.
Anderson’s last scoreless outing of at least five innings came on May 3, 2015 when as a member of the Dodgers.