Cubs are first team in baseball to 80 wins after Jake Arrieta's gem

Welcome to The Walk Off, the nightly MLB recap from Big League Stew. Here we’ll look at the top performers of the night, show you a must-see highlight and rundown the scoreboard. First, we start with a game you need to know about.

Cross another milestone off the list for the World Series-favorite Chicago Cubs. They became the first team in baseball to reach 80 wins by beating the Padres 5-3 on Tuesday night.

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This wasn’t a surprise since nobody else in the league is particularly close. The Nats and Rangers each have 73 wins, so it would be at least another week for them to reach 80. Meanwhile, the Cubs’ win gives them a 13-game lead in the NL Central. It might time soon to start counting down magic numbers on the North Side.

Leading the way in this one was ace Jake Arrieta, who seems to have fully rebounded from a rough July. Arrieta is back to being one of the best pitchers in the league this month, winning each of his starts thus far.

His best performance of August came Tuesday as he pitched eight shutout innings, striking out six. The Padres were able to score three runs in the ninth to make the final score more respectable, but the Cubs were on them early. Kris Bryant homered in the third inning, then Addison Russell added another in the fifth.

The first to 80 wins doesn’t make a club the automatic champion, but the Cubs keep checking all the right boxes as the season goes on.

TOP PERFORMERS

Yordano Ventura: It wasn’t the most dynamic pitching performance of the night, but with the Kansas City Royals looking to run their winning streak to nine, Yordano Ventura took the mound and delivered six shutout innings. That and a sixth-inning RBI single by Lorenzo Cain were enough for a 1-0 Kansas City win. And, yep, that’s nine in a row.

Ivan Nova: Looks like the Pittsburgh Pirates are already working their pitching magic with Ivan Nova, who they acquired at the trade deadline. Nova turned in his best start of the season, a complete game in which he allowed six hits and one run as the Pirates beat the Astros 7-1. Nova needed just 98 pitches to finish the job.

Adrian Gonzalez: He didn’t have eight RBIs like on Monday, but A-Gon led the Dodgers’ offense once again. He had two hits and three RBIs in the Dodgers’ 9-5 win over the rival San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers took Game 1 of this important series, meaning their NL West lead increased to two games.

MUST-SEE PLAY

The Reds got a combination of good things en route to a 3-0 win over the Rangers. Joey Votto had two RBIs. Dan Straily pitched six shutout innings. And Billy Hamilton gave us the defensive gem of the night. He traveled 123 feet on the ground for this amazing grab, registering 22 mph on Statcast and finishing it with a diving grab. Bravo, Mr. Hamilton.

REST OF THE SCOREBOARD

Orioles 8, Nats 1: Chris Davis hits his 30th homer of the season for Baltimore and Mark Trumbo even got a couple of hits that weren’t homers. Imagine that.

Red Sox 2, Rays 1: Things are going so right for the Red Sox right now that even Clay Buchholz had a great game, striking out nine in 6.1 innings of one-run ball.

Blue Jays 7, Angels 2: Russell Martin knocks three hits and drives in two runs for the Jays. That kept them even with the Red Sox atop the AL East.

White Sox 9, Phillies 1: Jose Abreu homers for his third straight game.

Brewers 6, Rockies 4: The Rockies get 10 Ks from starter Jon Gray, but the Brewers managed six runs off the Rockies anyway.

Tigers 8, Twins 3: Detroit scores three runs in both the sixth and seventh innings for the comeback win.

Mets 7, Cardinals 4: Mets starter Jon Niese leaves with an injury in the first inning, but the Mets offense wasn’t phased. Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera each notched three hits.

Braves 7, D-backs 4: Matt Kemp has two hits, including a three-run go-ahead double in the eighth inning, to lead the Braves.

Yankees 5, Mariners 1: CC Sabathia tosses seven innings of one-run, three-hit ball to stifle the M’s.

A’s 9, Indians 1: A’s bats beat up on Danny Salazar, who gave up six runs in four innings.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz