St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina (4) holds his glove up… The Brewers had lost nine of ten before breaking loose at the plate with an 8-4 win versus Cincinnati Sunday. Heyward’s throw beat him by two strides, and Molina applied the swipe tag for the double play.
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Rookies continue to power the Chicago Cubs. Starlin Castro singled, and was replaced at first by Quintin Berry.
“When you have a makeup game on an off day – Monday at 1 p.m. – and 40,000 people show up, I believe that says it all”, Maddon said. Of course Cubs manager Joe Maddon denied any premeditation in the Garcia plunking. “It’s obvious we’re playing on the same level as they are right now”.
Pittsburgh, which trails NL Central-leading St. Louis by four games, is a big league-best 34-17 in one-run games and improved to 23-6 against the NL West. And if they advance in the postseason, there’s a good chance they’ll face the Cardinals at some point. They wasted no time in putting runs on the board facing Cubs Jon Lester (10-11/3.46 ERA) by the bats of the Cardinals rookies. Jason Heyward made a flawless , one-hop bounce to the plate, and Rizzo was easily thrown out.
“It took some talking to because he wants to stay in (the game), and he felt he could still catch”, Matheny said.
“That was a base hit the moment it left the bat”, Maddon said. “I just couldn’t grip it”.
Manager Mike Matheny, who removed Molina in favor of backup Tony Cruz, offered his initial sense after the injury. “We’re not going to put up with that from them or anyone else”.
Jackie Bradley Jr. snapped an 0-for-21 slump with a tying double in the seventh, then tied it again with a two-run homer off Roberto Osuna (1-5) in the ninth. Rosenthal then struck out pinch-hitter Javier Soler and retired Kyle Schwarber on a groundout.
The Cardinals had the opportunity to clinch the game with a ninth-inning rally when Matt Carpenter hit a two-run home run off Zac Rosscup to make it 5-3.
Losing two of three games against the Chicago Cubs is always going to be something of a disappointment. Trevor Rosenthal came in and struck out Miguel Montero on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning.
Starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg benefitted from the offensive explosion as he improved to 10-7 while allowing two runs and six hits with 10 strikeouts in seven innings.
“We battled back”, Counsell said.
The Cubs bullpen did a good job Sunday. Baltimore fell 5 1-2 games behind Houston for the second AL wild card. He’s 3 for 11 against St. Louis and 0 for 82 against all other teams. Oddsmakers have this game as even, with both teams getting odds of -105 to win.
The Cubs will have to play with more efficiency than they showed in the last six games.
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The Cubs loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the eighth but got only one run when Tommy La Stella walked. The Cubs have hit three different Cubs with pitches, including Kolten Wong twice on Saturday. With two on and two outs in the eighth, Skip Schumaker hit a looping fly ball down the left field line.
