(Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS) The St. Louis Cardinals’ Jon Jay slams his helmet on the ground as Stephen Piscotty strikes out to end the game against the Chicago Cubs in Game 4 of the NLDS at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Tuesday, October 13, 2015. Cubs fans were sure that with pitching ace Arrieta on the mound, the Cubs would win the game.
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“We just played an unbelievable ball club right there”, an emotional Rizzo, who hit a go-ahead solo homer in the sixth inning, said in an on-field television interview.
When the Cubs split the first two games in St. Louis, assuring two games at Wrigley, fans started thinking about winning the series.
The Cubs will have to settle on a rotation for the seven-game NLCS, which opens on the road since wild-card entry Chicago is the lowest remaining seed. That series will be decided in Game 5 on Thursday night in Los Angeles.
Clayton Kershaw had eight strikeouts and allowed one run in seven innings to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 3-1 win over the New York Mets at Citi Field.
Rizzo homered in the sixth and Schwarber homered in the seventh to give the Cubs their margin of victory. The problem was that nobody found the ball until a fan spotted it – atop the new video board right under the “i” in “Budweiser”. Mets rookie Steven Matz held his own in the contest, faltering only in a three-run third inning, fueled by a few softly hit singles and properly placed knocks.
“Eventually they (the Cardinals) did tie it up, but I don’t want to not be proactive in advance of the game being tied so I did what we did”.
During the 2015 regular season, the Cubs hit 171 home runs. Then just a few batters later Javier Baez belted a 3-run homer to take a 4-2 lead. Both teams were good enough to win any division in baseball, with the exception of the Cubs who fell three games behind the Cardinals for the NL Central division. Adrian Gonzalez followed with an RBI single, and Justin Turner added a two-run double.
Matheny chose to go with Lackey on short rest with St. Louis facing elimination, and it looked like a smart decision when the right-hander struck out his final two batters in a ideal first. Tickets for three potential World Series home games are listed for an average of $6,750, $6,754 and $8,443 respectively on ticket aggregator SeatGeek.
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“I’ll tell you what about our young guys”, said Maddon on the field after the game.
