The Cardinals just finished off what
was there best home stand of the season last week when the bats came alive,
both the starting pitching and the bullpen showed signs of coming together—and
today was no different when they hit the road to open up a three game series at
the friendly confines of Wrigley Field.
Saint Louis got home runs in each of
the first five-innings of baseball, Lance Lynn picked up his team-leading
thirteenth victory as a starter; and the bullpen shut down the Cubbies for four
consecutive innings in a 9-to-6 slugfest win for the up-and-coming red-hot
defending champion’ Cardinals.
Matt Holliday blasted a two-out, 3-1
delivery in the top half of the first-inning to get the party started off
Chicago starter Travis Wood (4-6). Wood, who has been a sparkplug for the Cubs
at certain points during this season for them, pitched five-innings on Friday
afternoon, giving up eight runs on seven hits in his sixth loss of this season.
Following a three-run bottom-first for
the Cubbies, in which included a home-run from Anthony Rizzo, the defending
champions responded with a four-run inning themselves that was capped off by a
two-run blast off the bat of Yadier Molina—which continued to up his career-high
in home runs to sixteen.
Also homering for Saint Louis were the
likes of Lance Berkman (top of the third-inning), Matt Carpenter (top of the
fourth-inning), and Allen Craig (top of the fifth-inning).
Saint Louis didn’t get a stellar
performance from starting pitcher’ Lance Lynn, but it was certainly good enough
to get the win for himself—and for the team. Lynn went five-innings deep,
giving up six runs on eight hits—along with three strikeouts and two
base-on-balls. The win improved his resume this season to 13-4 overall with an
earned-run average of 3.42.
The bullpen for the Cardinals has
certainly gotten a lot better on the bright side. The likes of Brian Fuentes,
Barrett Browning, Fernando Salas, Marc Rzepczynski, and Jason Motte all
combined for four scoreless innings—including the twenty-third save of the season
for closer’ Jason Motte.
The Cubs hit one home-run in the game,
which came from Rizzio in the first-inning, and got RBIs from Starlin Castro
(47), Alfonzo Soriano (59), Geovanny Soto (14), and of course Rizzo (15).
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