The young sluggers of the Chicago Cubs are making themselves at home in the playoffs.
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“To see the ball fly out of the yard as many times as it did was incredible”, Arrieta said.
“I haven’t gotten any finalized conclusions from anybody yet”, Maddon said.
“I don’t think you can have too many shortstops”, Maddon said. “We are definitely capable of that”.
Addison Russell got an MRI on his tight left hamstring on Tuesday morning, and manager Joe Maddon didn’t sound all that optimistic his rookie shortstop would be available for a Game 5 that’s no longer necessary. Prior to Monday’s start, he’d only allowed four runs since the start of August, including a complete-game shutout in the wild-card game.
“I just didn’t overall like the location of a few pitches, and I knew I didn’t want to wait for us to tie or lose the lead”.
“This is a team that was as impressive to watch from day one as any team I’ve ever been around”, he said. “Got a chance here, still, and try to keep it moving”.
Jake Arrieta struggled for the first time in months, giving up four earned runs.
The youthful Cubs are living up to their expectations of blasting home runs and the Cardinals will need to dig deep into their experience in order to even up the series again and avoid elimination. But Hector Rondon retired Matt Holliday on a bouncer to second, and the party was on.
“These guys will make you pay in this park when the wind was doing what it was doing”, Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny said.
Asked how significant it was for the fans that the Cubs had finally clinched a post-season series at Wrigley Field, Rizzo replied: “They deserve it. They deserve it. Hopefully this is just a taste of what’s going to come”.
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.
Seven relievers combined to hold the Cardinals to two runs and five hits the rest of the way.
And it didn’t matter, not one bit. “We had an opportunity maybe to get back home and do things differently, but they took advantage of the opportunities they had”, he said.
Schwarber, Castro and Bryant homered against Michael Wacha in his first playoff appearance since he threw the final pitch of the 2014 postseason for the Cardinals, a game-ending, three-run shot for Travis Ishikawa in the NLCS against the Giants.
In Houston, nearly out of time and out of the playoffs, Kansas City realized it needed more than a big home run.
Only once since they last brought home the World Series in 1908 had the Cubs won a playoff series and never before had they finished off the job at their century-plus-old ballpark. The right-hander is 0-1 with a 4.80 ERA in four career playoff games. “We just came back with a crooked number to get it to a one-run game”.
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R.A. Dickey allowed one run over 42/3 innings for the Blue Jays before David Price pitched three innings.
