Cardinals storm back to beat Cubs |
CHICAGO - Although things may look bleak right now, the season isn't over for the Chicago Cubs (54-59) as they are still in the middle of the Wild Card hunt. In order for them to move up in the standings, they need to start beating the teams in front of them which includes the St. Louis Cardinals (57-54) who are just two games out of the final Wild Card Spot.
Looking to make it four-straight overall and three straight against the Cardinals, the Cubs took it to the Red Birds early as they opened up a 4-1 lead in the first few innings. It was a lead that Jameson Taillon and the Cubs bullpen held up until the eighth when the Cardinals rallied for three runs to tie things up before picking up the 5-4 win in the ninth. Even with this season not going as planned for the Cubs, you would never guess that by going to Wrigley Field as the Cubs fans continue to show up in groves. With Cardinals in town, the atmosphere was kicked up a notch as this rivalry is known for having great games and intense crowds throughout. Coming off arguably his worst start in the last two months, Taillon responded in a big way as he gave the Cubs six strong innings of one-run baseball, striking out four in the process. Those are the efforts the Cubs have become accustomed to for a majority of their starting staff, as the only run off of Taillon came in the first as Alec Burleson took Taillon deep to put the Cardinals in front 1-0. Considering how Kyle Gibson has been against the Cubs this season, the Cardinals had to be feeling great about their situation as Gibson gave the Cardinals seven solid innings on the mound. However, unlike his previous starts against this team, where runs were hard to come by, the Cubs jumped on Gibson early and put themselves in a position to win by reaching their magic number of runs per game with four. Whenever the Cubs score four runs or more in a game, they are extremely tough to beat. They entered the game with winners of 15 of their last 16 when scoring four runs and an overall record of 44-15. It didn't take the Cubs long to respond, as Ian Happ continued to settle back into the leadoff role with a leadoff walk before coming home on another Michael Busch homer to put the Cubs in front 2-1. For the second game in a row, Michael sends it out of here. pic.twitter.com/Akpm3iZP3I The Cubs continued to keep the pressure on in the second, with Nico Hoerner starting things off with a leadoff single before motoring around the bases on the Pere Crow-Armstrong single to put the Cubs in front 3-1. Cubs extend the lead to 4-1! pic.twitter.com/hgFIlwVWrv Crow-Armstrong came around to score the Cubs fourth run on a Miguel Amaya bunt as they opened up a 4-1 lead after two. However, as has been the case far too often this season, the Cubs failed to add more runs as they were held scoreless the rest of the game, which is a big reason why the Cardinals still had a chance. Even with Taillon getting in a nice groove to retire 11 of 13 at one point, the Cardinals never felt out of it, as a pair of fourth-inning singles had their offense threatening, only to come away empty. St. Louis mounted another mini-rally in the sixth with two more singles, but as he has done most of the season, Taillon worked out of trouble to give the Cubs six innings of work, leaving with a 4-1 lead. With Gibson continuing to handcuff the Cubs offense after the second inning, allowing minimal traffic along the way, this was still a 4-1 game entering the eighth with Porter Hodge set to enter the game. The hard-throwing rookie right-hander has been a pleasant surprise for Craig Counsell this season and is a major reason why the Cubs bullpen has been as good as it has been for the past month or so. There are times when Hodge sees his command get away from him, and after a one-out walk and hit-by-pitch put two runners on, you start to see that again. Hodge came close to keeping the Cardinals off the board only to have Brendan Donovan come through with an RBI single to cut the deficit to 4-2 as the Cardinals were still threatening. The big blow in the eighth came off the bat of Nolan Arenado, whose two-RBI single capped off the Cardinals three-run eighth and brought things back to even 4-4. St. Louis followed that up with a leadoff triple in the ninth off the bat of Tommy Pham to keep the pressure on before the Lars Nootbaar sacrifice fly gave them a 5-4 lead late. Looking to slam the door at the bottom of the ninth, Oliver Marmol called on his all-star closer, Ryan Helsley, to get the job done. Despite leading the Majors in saves with 34, Helsley has struggled against the Cubs all season, as his ERA is north of 9.00. That includes a three-run ninth inning on Thursday that saw the Cubs rally back to win the game. This time, Helsley got the job done in relatively easy fashion, retiring the Cubs to lock down the save, with the Cardinals winning 5-4. Chicago had five hits in the game as Busch and Hoerner led the way with two and PCA picking up the other one. Chicago will now go for the series win on Sunday as they turn to Justin Steele against Miles Mikolas on Sunday Night baseball. “I think Pete just got a little overaggressive … unfortunately it contributed to a big play in the game that ultimately cost us two runs.” “You have to allow [PCA] to catch that baseball.”
Craig Counsell on PCA’s dropped ball. pic.twitter.com/mR6kHf1SSc
Cliff Floyd on the dropped ball in the 8th. pic.twitter.com/e5JrXhrpbM
