As the Cubs figure out the innings puzzle for the last five weeks of the regular season, right-hander Javier Assad is expected to play an important role. But the team optioned him Saturday to Triple-A Iowa after his best start of the season and recalled left-hander Jordan Wicks.

Kyle Tucker finally broke through. The Chicago Cubs outfielder ended his month-long power outage on Friday night with a Statcast-projected 405-foot home run in the first inning against the Los Angeles Angels. The solo shot to right field not only put the Cubs ahead early but also marked Tucker’s first extra-base hit since July 30 in Milwaukee.

Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a tiebreaking homer in the ninth inning and Kyle Tucker went deep for the first time in more than a month as the Chicago Cubs beat the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 to open a nine-gam