Arrieta says the Cubs are “in a great spot”.
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“To see the ball fly out of the yard as many times as it did was incredible”, Arrieta said. Chicago had lost seven straight Division Series games.
For his part, Cubs manager Joe Maddon said he wasn’t ready to announce his Game 4 starter, either.
“Listen, I can’t be more proud of our guys”, Maddon said. “We are definitely capable of that”. The Cardinals, who led the majors with 100 wins this season, have won at least one playoff series in each of the last four years.
The last time Wacha was on the mound in the playoffs, he served up a game-ending homer to Travis Ishikawa in Game 5 of the 2014 NLCS at San Francisco. “When you win a wild-card game like we did, I promise you, you settle in. I want to be on good teams”, Lackey said.
Dexter Fowler, Soler and Starlin Castro each had two of Chicago’s six hits in a game played in front of a crowd of 47,859, a postseason record at 10-year-old Busch Stadium, that included thousands of Cubs fans.
The Cubs will give veteran Jason Hammel the ball for the pivotal Game 4 of their NL Division Series against the Cardinals. But Hector Rondon retired Matt Holliday on a harmless bouncer to second, and the party was on. “They just kept adding on”. He’ll face another fireballing youngster in Kansas City’s Yordano Ventura, who was limited to two innings in a rain-delayed Game 1 and finished the season with a 2.38 ERA in his last 11 starts.
Hendricks allowed three homers in 42/3 innings.
And it didn’t matter, not one bit.
“Just excited for this opportunity this year, being a part of this wonderful team and looking forward to seeing what we can do in this postseason”, Wacha said.
Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Yordano Ventura throws during the first inning in Game 1 of baseball’s American League Division Series against the Houston Astros, Thursday, October 8, 2015, in Kansas City.
After Martin Perez and the Rangers failed to close the door on the Blue Jays on Sunday, Derek Holland gets a chance to eliminate Toronto in his first start of this postseason.
Even Adam Wainwright got into the act, serving up Soler’s two-run shot in the sixth.
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Besides the two-run homer, Soler doubled and walked twice in the Cubs’ first postseason victory since 2003. He is the first player in major league history to reach safely in his first nine postseason plate appearances.
