Chicago Cubs vs St. Louis Cardinals Match Player Stats On Sep 26, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Sep 27, 2017

ST. LOUIS -- Keeping their slim wild-card hopes intact while preventing the Chicago Cubs from clinching their second straight National League Central title, the St. Louis Cardinals hung on for an 8-7 win Tuesday night at Busch Stadium.

St. Louis (82-75) tied a season high with four homers, including seventh-inning clouts from Jedd Gyorko and Randal Grichuk that gave the Cardinals an 8-3 lead.

Chicago (88-69) stormed back behind the long ball in the eighth. Jason Heyward's three-run shot to right-center got the Cubs within two runs, and Ben Zobrist lined a two-out solo blast to right-center that made it an 8-7 game.

Later in the eighth, Kris Bryant greeted closer Juan Nicasio with a ground-rule double to left-center, but Anthony Rizzo popped up to short to end the inning.

Nicasio then retired the side in the ninth for his third save with the Cardinals and fifth overall, fanning pinch hitter Javier Baez for the third out with the tying and go-ahead runs aboard.

St. Louis remained 2 1/2 games behind Colorado for the NL's second wild-card spot as the Rockies blanked Miami 6-0. Milwaukee's 7-6 win over Cincinnati kept the Cubs' magic number at one. The Brewers trail the Rockies by 1 1/2 games in the wild-card race.

Reliever Zach Duke (1-1) got the win, retiring all five batters he faced following starter Carlos Martinez's departure with one out in the fifth. Martinez permitted four hits and three runs (two earned) in his 91-pitch outing. He walked four and fanned six.

Jake Arrieta (14-10) lasted just three innings for Chicago, yielding six hits and five runs (three earned) with one walk and four strikeouts.

St. Louis got to work early against Arrieta.

Matt Carpenter cracked the 15th leadoff homer of his career in the first inning, a 420-foot shot to right-center field.

After a two-out error by shortstop Mike Freeman on Paul DeJong's grounder scored Dexter Fowler from third, Grichuk laced a triple to right-center that plated DeJong.

In the Cubs' second, Kyle Schwarber's infield out scored Ian Happ, who tripled, to put Chicago on the board.

Tommy Pham upped the Cardinals' lead to 5-1 with a 426-foot rocket into the third deck in left in the bottom of the second.

A bases-loaded walk to Willson Contreras drew the Cubs within 5-2 in the third.

Chicago made it 5-3 in the fourth in unusual fashion, as pinch hitter Tommy La Stella's apparent 1-2-3 double-play ball with the bases loaded was wiped out due to catcher's interference on Carson Kelly.

St. Louis increased the lead to 6-3 in the fifth on an RBI double to left center by DeJong.

NOTES: Chicago 2B Javier Baez (left knee) didn't start Tuesday night after leaving Monday night's game in the eighth inning for a pinch runner. He pinch-hit on Tuesday and struck out. Baez was injured when he fouled a pitch off his knee. ... St. Louis All-Star C Yadier Molina wasn't in the lineup Tuesday night as the result of nausea. Molina left Monday night's game in the seventh inning after taking consecutive foul balls off his mask. ... Cubs OF Albert Almora (bruised shoulder) left the game in the fifth inning after running into the left-center-field wall.