(TSX / STATS) -- CHICAGO -- It was a historic but incomplete night for Chicago Cubs left-hander Jon Lester as he hit his first career home run and collected his 2,000th career strikeout.
But he didn't get the victory even as the Cubs rolled to a 16-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Tuesday night's series opener .
The Diamondbacks forced Lester to throw 104 pitches in four-plus innings as he sputtered toward the end and missed the chance for his ninth victory.
"A lot of foul balls, weird game, really weird game," Lester said. "At the end of the day, we won, so who cares about all the other stuff."
Cubs manager Joe Maddon said Lester pitched well, but the Diamondbacks kept making him work.
"They kept fouling off pitches, that's what got him out of the game," Maddon said. "He really had good stuff and he should have easily pitched a solid six today. But when it got to that point in the game, it looked like his stuff had really dropped off."
The Cubs (57-48) scored early and often as Anthony Rizzo homered twice, and Ian Happ and Javier Baez added one apiece as the Cubs matched a season high for home runs in a game.
Lester hit his first major league homer -- a two-run shot to left field in the third inning.
He also fanned pinch hitter Jack Reinheimer in the fourth inning for the 2,000th strikeout of his career.
"It's awesome, it's great and I'm not downplaying it, but I'd rather take the win," Lester said.
Cubs reliever Hector Rondon (3-1) claimed the victory instead after he stepped in and worked 1 2/3 innings, allowing one hit and striking out one.
Losing pitcher Patrick Corbin (8-10) lasted only three innings as the Cubs hit him for eight runs (seven earned) and 10 hits.
Corbin said it was evident what went wrong.
"Pretty much everything," he said. "I left some fastballs there, made some mistakes, fell behind on guys. The changeup I felt was pretty good, but I left fastballs over the middle and paid for it."
But there was plenty of blame to share.
"We've played pretty fundamental baseball during the season" Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. "Today we made three errors and that was uncharacteristic."
The victory was the Cubs' third straight, sixth in seven games and 14th since the All-Star break. The Diamondbacks (60-46) suffered their third loss in four games.
Rizzo led the Cubs' 17-hit parade, going 3-for-5 with three RBIs and three runs. Happ, Willson Contreras, Addison Russell, Lester and Ben Zobrist had two hits apiece.
A.J. Pollock, Adam Rosales and Paul Goldschmidt each had two of the Diamondbacks' eight hits. Rosales was making his Arizona debut.
The Cubs already had a comfortable 8-3 lead after 5 1/2 innings before adding seven more runs in the sixth. The key blows were a two-run double by Contreras and Baez's three-run homer, his 14th home run of the season. Both came off Diamondbacks reliever TJ McFarland, who then departed.
Rizzo's second homer of the night, his 26th of the season, came in the seventh for the 16th run, a Cubs season high.
Rosales singled home Jeff Mathis for the final run in the Arizona ninth off Cubs reliever Mike Montgomery.
NOTES: The Diamondbacks recalled INF Jack Reinheimer from Triple-A Reno and optioned RHP Silvino Bracho to Reno. RHP David Hernandez and INF Adam Rosales, both acquired in trades, reported and were active for the game. ... Arizona also signed veteran OF Emilio Bonifacio to a minor league contract. ... The Diamondbacks send RHP Zack Godley (4-4, 3.06 ERA) against Cubs RHP Jake Arrieta (10-7, 4.03) in Wednesday's middle game. ... The Cubs made several moves in the wake of Monday's trade deadline, officially adding LHP Justin Wilson and C Alex Avila to the 25-man roster after they were acquired from the Detroit Tigers. In corresponding roster moves, RHP Justin Grimm and C Victor Caratini were optioned to Triple-A Iowa. ... The Cubs are the first defending World Series champions to be in first place Aug. 1 since the San Francisco Giants topped the National League West in 2011.
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