Stephen Piscotty leads St. Louis with 143 hits, Yadier Molina has 47 RBI and Matt Carpenter has 19 home runs.
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It won’t help that it’ll have to face Jason Hammel (14-8, 3.50), who already owns two wins against it this year, a 2-1 decision on April 19 and a 12-3 verdict on May 24 in which he worked six shutout innings despite not having his best stuff.
The Cubs have been the class of the NL Central all season long and hold the best record in baseball heading into Monday night’s clash with the Cardinals and while the Cubs have more than enough wiggle room in the division lead you can be sure they would love to make a statement to the home side here with a dominating series.
Monday’s performance, which reduced the Cubs’ magic number for clinching the division title to three games and reduced Hendricks’ major-league-leading ERA to 2.03, reminded Maddon of the kind of dominance Jake Arrieta his in his no-hitter in Los Angeles late last season on the way to the Cy Young Award.
Garcia has lost four straight starts and has posted an 8.06 ERA over his last five outings, allowing nine home runs over that span.
Hazelbaker drove an 0-2 pitch into the right-field stands for his 12th homer. The 28-year-old from San Diego has allowed three runs or fewer in each of his last four turns after surrendering a total of 20 over his previous three outings. Leake did not factor in the decision at Chicago on August 14, remaining at 9-3 in 21 career starts against the Cubs after giving up three runs in six frames. “They hit a lot of home runs”. Hendricks got ahead 0-and-2, before leaving a pitch over the plate.
WHITE SOX 11, INDIANS 4- Avisail Garcia matched a career high with four hits, including a tiebreaking solo homer, and Chicago routed the AL Central leaders.
ATLANTA – Nick Markakis doubled to drive in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning, Tyler Flowers had four RBIs and the Atlanta Braves rallied to beat the Miami Marlins 12-7 on Monday night. Blake Wood (6-3) earned the win for Cincinnati after throwing 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of starter Keyvius Sampson.
Steven Souza Jr. hit a liner for the last out and traded words with Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin after a verbal misunderstanding.
TORONTO – Ezequiel Carrera led off the eighth inning with a pinch-hit home run, leading Toronto to a victory over Tampa Bay.
TIGERS 4, TWINS 2- Miguel Cabrera and Ian Kinsler homered and Detroit scored two runs in the seventh inning on close plays at the plate. They began the day tied with Baltimore in the AL wild-card race.
Alex Wimmers (1-2) took the loss. Daniel Coulombe (3-1) earned the victory in relief of Ross Detwiler.
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Had Hendricks been able to finish the ninth inning without allowing a hit it would have added to a recent run of no-hitters by the Cubs.
