Back in 2012, both the St. Louis Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles, the respective road teams in their games, took home victories, in a clean-sweep for the visitors heading into the Division Series.
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The Astros have won five of six and hold a one-game edge over the Los Angeles Angels for the second AL wild-card spot.
His counterpart on Wednesday, Chicago ace Jake Arrieta, finished the regular season by tossing six shutout innings on Friday, capping off a 22-win campaign in which he pitched to the lowest second-half earned run average in big league history.
It was in 1984 when Ryne Sandberg hit two game-tying home runs off of Bruce Sutter and the Cubs won 12-11. Starlin Castro hit into a double play to drive in another run to make it 3-0 at the start.
The Brewers will send a rookie to the mound for the 11th straight game with right-hander Tyler Wagner making his third big-league start. It’s not all one player. Chicago right-hander Kyle Hendricks looks to continue the dominant streak and avenge a tough-luck loss to the Brewers on September 23 in which he struck out eight and allowed three runs and four hits over six frames.
“That was it for me”, Haren said after the game. “I gave other guys an opportunity out of the bullpen and they were wonderful”. Houston trails West leader Texas by two games with two to play. His ERA dropped to 1.77. It wouldn’t surprise me if they show up in Pittsburgh Wednesday in that uniform, just to keep the mojo going.
The Cubs led off the first with a three-run inning, thanks in large part to Anthony Rizzo’s two-run double.
Sale allowed Jefry Marte’s second-inning homer while giving up five hits and striking out seven to end his season with 274.
The Nationals, considered among the favorites to win the World Series, are 82-78 after winning the first game of a doubleheader with the Mets and eliminated from playoff contention.
It’s not as if the Cubs didn’t give it their all to try to pull even with the Bucs and get that home-field advantage.
“I’m sure we’ll spend a lot of time together”, manager Craig Counsell said. “Fast forward from a year ago, we put our organization in a great position top to bottom for success”. Arrieta, always looking like he can go further in a game, was efficient, throwing just 72 pitches in this outing.
Uh oh…the Pittsburgh Pirates have made the playoffs, but they’ll have to face Jake Arrieta. Then you learn how to win. After a while, I just took it. These two sisters were brutal, but it was also really amusing.
Despite the absurdity of finishing in third place in the NL Central with a 97-65 record, the Cubs have plenty to be proud of this season.
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That’s among pitchers with 10 or more starts during that span (Arrieta has made 12 starts).
