Meanwhile, Jake Arrieta (18-7) struck out 10 and scattered five hits and a walk over seven innings before handing things over to Pedro Strop, Travis Wood and Carl Edwards Jr.
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“I don’t give up many hits, ” Arrieta said. “It could have turned into a turning point if we would have capitalized”.
After dropping three of four to the Milwaukee Brewers last weekend, Maddon sat the Cubs hitters down and illustrated all the points he thought they needed to improve on before the postseason – hitting with two strikes, moving baserunners, etc. The Cubs hold a tiebreaker over Washington for home-field advantage, as they won the season series between the two teams by a 5-2 margin.
Cubs reliever Pedro Strop was activated off the disabled list (left meniscus tear) on Friday and made his first appearance since August 10. The reigning National League Cy Young Award victor struck out 10 and allowed no runs, five hits and a walk in seven not-so-strenuous innings.
Rizzo, Zobrist and Chris Coghlan drove in runs in the first off Leake, winless in four starts since recovering from shingles.
“We’ve been hyper-critical of him all year based on what he did last year, ” Maddon said. “When he’s able to stay away from the big inning, you see him go deep in the game”.
The Cardinals, on the outside looking in for one of two final wild card berths, will try to break out of a two-game losing streak as Alex Reyes (3-1, 1.03 ERA) makes his 11th appearance and fourth start of the season in Saturday’s middle game of the Cubs-Cardinals series.
He took live batting practice on Friday and could have one more before the Cardinals decide whether to active him from the disable list or shut him down. “He blistered a couple balls, ” Matheny said. Holliday will likely have another BP session before he’s activated.
Arrieta and Cardinals 2B Matt Carpenter were college teammates at TCU.
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Arrieta, the reigning NL Cy Young Award victor, captured his 40th victory over the past two seasons.
