Arrieta struck out nine before departing in the sixth, and the bullpen finished the job in the first playoff game at Wrigley Field in seven years.
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“Pretty impressive”, Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. The last couple of weeks of the season, we have so many good players we were sort of bouncing lineups back and forth.
The Cubs will try to become the second straight NL wild-card victor to advance to the Championship Series as they take a 2-1 lead into Game 4 of their NLDS against the Cardinals. The Cardinals, who led the majors with 100 victory this season, have won at least one playoff series in each of the past four years. With the Cardinals in a must-win situation, the club needs a repeat of that performance in Game 4.
“It’s hard to finish off good teams”, said Maddon.
The Cardinals pushed across as many runs in 5 2/3 innings against Arrieta (four) as he’d allowed in those previous 13 starts. The Cardinals, though, were unable to keep the Cubs in the ballpark.
Even Wainwright got into the act, serving up Soler’s two-run shot in the sixth on a cutter that was supposed to be down and away. Cubs closer Hector Rondon had two outs on the board, but had rookie Randal Grichuk sitting on second.
“We were grinding against Arrieta all night and we did have opportunities”, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said.
They just could not pull out the win.
Arrieta improved to 18-1 with a 1.00 ERA in his last 22 starts dating to June 21, but he was far from his usual dominant self.
And it didn’t matter, not one bit.
Bryant’s two-run drive made it 4-2 with one out in the fifth and chased Wacha in favor of Kevin Siegrist.
The place was still jumping when 26-year-old Anthony Rizzo followed with a 430-foot blast into the right-field bleachers, his first hit of the postseason. To finish up the scoring that inning, Jorge Soler went hit a home run to score himself and Fowler and make the Cubs lead 5-1. A lot of their better record against us was early in the season, their ability to battle back against us in the latter part of a game. The Cardinals have established a reputation of overwhelming hitters with an NL-best 8.2 strikeouts per road game, making them one of the top five teams in the league.
Down 6-2 and facing elimination, the Kansas City Royals finally found their hitting. They can hit a few mistake balls, and they don’t miss very many of them.
Alex Gordon’s RBI groundout off Luke Gregerson later in the inning put Kansas City ahead.
The Cubs can clinch the series Tuesday with Jason Hammel opposing the Cardinals’ John Lackey, who will be starting on three days’ rest.
A win Tuesday night and the Cubs have a chance to get to the World Series and win their first World Series since 1908.
Adrian Beltre and his ailing back get a needed off day before the Rangers face the Blue Jays in a decisive Game 5 on Wednesday in Toronto.
St. Louis gives the baseball to Michael Wacha tonight.
St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina winced on a swing-and-miss in the fourth inning, and then was checked on by a trainer and Matheny.
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Beyond that, the Cubs’ six home runs on Monday speak to the success that team president Theo Epstein and company have when it comes to evaluating offensive talent.
