The Cardinals will play two games at Boston on August 15-16 and also play for the first time at new Yankee Stadium in NY and at Baltimore.
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The St. Louis Cardinals have made sure the Chicago Cubs won’t celebrate a division title at Busch Stadium today. The season opener against the Cubs will be the first between the two teams in St. Louis since 2000.
Jon Lester gave the Chicago Cubs a much-needed boost. While this Lester doesn’t get it up there in terms of velocity, he’s just as good of a pitcher, if not better. “That’s the type of team we can be and then we can jump up and surprise some people with the long ball”.
Wrigley Field has always been considered a graveyard for left-handed hitters and only seven have reached 30 home runs in a Cubs uniform.
“You’ve seen my at-bats”, he said.
Anthony Rizzo hit a pair of home runs as the Cubs improved their major league-best record to 93-52 and lowered their magic number to one for clinching their first NL Central title since 2008. The Cubs open their Wrigley Field campaign against the Los Angeles Dodgers for the first time since 1963.
All-Star arms are on the mound at AT&T Park for the opener of a critical, four-game series between NL wild-card contenders.
St. Louis remained a half-game behind the New York Mets for the second wild-card spot. The Cubs will be on the road for four holidays: Mother’s Day in St. Louis on May 14, Memorial Day Monday, May 29 at San Diego, Father’s Day on June 18 at Pittsburgh and Labor Day Monday, September 4 in Pittsburgh.
Reyes entered the game with the bases loaded and two out in the second. His nine home runs this season are more than in his previous two seasons combined.
Cobb (1-0), making his third start since returning from Tommy John surgery, allowed one run, two hits and three walks in 6 2/3 innings. “The sooner, the better, so that we can make our appropriate plans going forward and really set things up to make our best push”. It feels really good to look back on that consistency.
Come playoff time past year for the Cubs, Hendricks started two games, one coming in the NLDS and the other in the NLCS. The 27-year-old first baseman finished with 31 home runs and 101 RBI’s in 2015, his two on Wednesday gave him 31 home runs and 101 RBI’s in 2016. He is the second Cubs left-handed hitter in franchise history to post multiple 30 home run and 100 RBI seasons (Billy Williams did it in 1965, 1970 and 1972).
This could become important if Lester winds up pitching against the Cardinals in this year’s postseason.
The Cardinals, who scored all four runs with two outs, are 8-7 against the Cubs, who are 40 games over.500. The Cardinals will finish with a losing record at home, and now have a stretch of at least two months without winning a series at Busch.
“I went in the cage and worked and worked and nothing seemed to come from it”, Moss said. “He’s continuing to show the kind of stuff we need him to have, but there’s times you just don’t get away with many mistakes”. Cardinals RHP Trevor Rosenthal (right shoulder inflammation) threw live batting practice Tuesday and could be activated later this week.
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Mike Montgomery will start for the Cubs Thursday evening and Jimmy Nelson goes for the Brewers. The Cardinals and Giants start a four-game series on Thursday evening.
