CARDS RALLY LATE TO TIE CUBS, WIN IN EXTRAS
RedBirds 10-0 vs. Chicago
CHICAGO, July 25 (AP) – Jhonny Peralta’s bases loaded grounder in the bottom of the 12th scored Tony Cruz with the go-ahead run and the St. Louis Cardinals went on to defeat the Chicago Cubs 4-3 at Wrigley Field. The Cubs took a 3-1 lead into the top of the ninth, but a two-out pinch hit double off the bat of Oscar Taveras tied the game for St. Louis. The Cardinals have now won all ten games they’ve played against the Cubs this season. Chicago stranded 16 runners in the game and St. Louis pitchers issued a season-high 12 walks to Cubs batters, but in the end the Cardinals prevailed.
The Cubs took an early three-run lead, scoring single runs in each of the first three frames off Cardinals starter Joe Kelly. Luis Valbuena opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with a two-out RBI single, driving home Arismendy Alcantara, who had doubled. Chicago starting pitcher Travis Wood hit his third home run of the season, the most by any pitcher this year to date, to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead in the second. And Anthony Rizzo’s base hit drove home Alcantara, who had doubled, to give make it 3-0 in the bottom of the third.
Wood held the Cardinals off the board until the top of the fifth when Matt Carpenter’s seventh home run of the year, a solo shot, cut the lead to 3-1.
The Cub missed a chance to add some insurance in the bottom of the eighth when three walks—two issued by Sam Freeman and one by Trevor Rosenthal—loaded the bases with two outs. But Nate Schierholtz grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the threat.
Justin Grimm and Pedro Strop combined to retire all five batters they faced, handing the game to Hector Rondon in the ninth. Matt Holliday led off the inning with a base hit and Matt Adams doubled to left, putting the tying runs in scoring position with no outs. But Allen Craig struck out and Jon Jay flied to shallow right. Suddenly there were two outs. With the sellout Wrigley crowd on its feet, Rondon faced the pinch hitter Taveras. On a 1-1 fastball, Taveras lashed a base hit through the middle, scoring both runners to tie the game; Taveras advanced to second on the throw to the plate. Rondon struck out Cruz to end the inning, but the save had been blown.
The Cubs had a chance to win the game in the bottom half of the inning when reliever Carlos Martinez walked consecutive batters with two outs but Starlin Castro grounded to short to end the threat.
Chicago threatened again in the bottom of the tenth. Wellington Castillo singled with one out and a walk to Ryan Sweeney put runners on first and second. Schierholtz grounded out, moving the runners to second and third and Justin Ruggiano walked to load the bases yet again. But Martinez retired pinch hitter Junior Lake on a ground ball to take the game into the 11th.
For the third consecutive inning, the Cubs had a chance to win the game when they batted in the bottom of the 11th. With one out, Rizzo reached on an infield single and, after Castro flied out, Valbuena and Castillo drew consecutive bases on balls from an obviously fatigued Martinez. St. Louis manager Mike Matheny went to the bullpen for the eighth time in the game and summoned Pat Neshek, the only reliever he had left. Neshek fanned Sweeney and the Cubs had stranded the bases loaded for the third time in the last four innings. From the eighth inning through the 11th the Cubs left 11 runners on base.
In the top of the 12th, Cruz singled with one out and Daniel Descalso followed with a base hit of his own, putting runners on first and second. Carpenter then grounded a single through the right side of the infield, filling the bases. That brought Peralta to the plate. The Cubs brought the infield in but Peralta hit a rocket at Valbuena who did well to knock the ball down. By the time he recovered his only play was at first base and he took the out. Cruz scored the lead run and the other runners advanced 90 feet. Holliday was walked intentionally, bringing Neshek to the plate and the last man standing in the Cardinals bullpen rolled into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
The bottom half of the frame was anticlimactic; Neshek retired Chicago in order, fanning pinch hitter Emilio Bonifacio to end the game. The Cubs would have to wait at least one more day to put an end to the Cardinals head-to-head mastery.
7/25/2014, StL14-ChN14, Wrigley Field
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 R H E LOB DP
2014 Cardinals 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 4 12 0 9 1
2014 Cubs 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 0 16 2
Cardinals AB R H BI AVG Cubs AB R H BI AVG
Carpenter,M 3b 6 1 2 1 .244 Coghlan lf 4 0 0 0 .301
Peralta,Jh ss 5 0 1 1 .290 Strop p 0 0 0 0 .000
Holliday lf 5 1 2 0 .266 Rondon,H p 0 0 0 0 .000
Adams,Ma 1b 5 1 2 0 .299 Baker,Jo ph 1 0 0 0 .153
Neshek p 1 0 0 0 .000 Villanueva p 0 0 0 0 .071
Craig rf 5 0 0 0 .226 Lake ph 1 0 0 0 .173
Jay cf 5 0 2 0 .303 Schlitter p 0 0 0 0 .000
Ellis,M 2b 3 0 0 0 .133 Bonifacio ph 1 0 0 0 .242
Maness p 0 0 0 0 .000 Alcantara 2b 5 2 2 0 .160
Freeman,S p 0 0 0 0 .000 Rizzo 1b 4 0 2 1 .284
Rosenthal p 0 0 0 0 .000 Castro,S ss 5 0 0 0 .278
Taveras ph 1 0 1 2 .179 Valbuena 3b 4 0 1 1 .236
Martinez,C p 0 0 0 0 .214 Castillo,W c 5 0 1 0 .210
Wong 2b 1 0 0 0 .240 Sweeney cf 3 0 0 0 .270
Cruz,T c 4 1 1 0 .215 Schierholtz rf 5 0 0 0 .206
Kelly,J p 1 0 0 0 .000 Wood,T p 2 1 1 1 .214
Bourjos ph 1 0 0 0 .255 Grimm p 0 0 0 0 .000
Siegrist p 0 0 0 0 .000 Ruggiano ph 3 0 1 0 .277
Motte p 0 0 0 0 .000 43 3 8 3
Choate p 0 0 0 0 .000
Descalso 2b 3 0 1 0 .227
46 4 12 4
Cardinals INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Kelly,J 4.0 5 3 3 3 4 72 38 6.21
Siegrist 1.1 0 0 0 0 1 20 13 8.40
Motte 0.2 0 0 0 0 1 6 5 4.35
Choate 0.2 1 0 0 0 1 9 7 1.57
Maness 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 4 3 2.29
Freeman,S 0.1 0 0 0 2 0 15 5 1.69
Rosenthal 0.2 0 0 0 1 0 18 9 0.44
Martinez,C 2.2 2 0 0 6 1 78 37 3.67
Neshek W 2-4 1.1 0 0 0 0 2 12 9 4.27
12.0 8 3 3 12 11 234 126
Cubs INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Wood,T 6.1 4 1 1 2 6 98 63 4.43
Grimm H 12 0.2 0 0 0 0 2 9 6 3.19
Strop H 10 1.0 0 0 0 0 2 13 8 1.49
Rondon,H BS 3 1.0 3 2 2 0 2 19 14 1.74
Villanueva 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 9 6 3.00
Schlitter L 3-4 2.0 4 1 1 1 1 34 21 4.93
12.0 12 4 4 3 13 182 118
StL: Bourjos batted for Kelly,J in the 5th
Descalso inserted at 2b in the 7th
Taveras batted for Rosenthal in the 9th
Wong inserted at 2b in the 11th
Descalso moved to 1b in the 11th
ChN: Ruggiano batted for Grimm in the 7th
Ruggiano moved to lf in the 8th
Baker,Jo batted for Rondon,H in the 9th
Lake batted for Villanueva in the 10th
Bonifacio batted for Schlitter in the 12th
2B-Peralta,Jh(25), Adams,Ma(26), Jay(8), Alcantara(3). 3B-Ruggiano(1).
HR-Carpenter,M(7), Wood,T(3). RBI-Carpenter,M(36), Peralta,Jh(49),
Taveras 2(7), Rizzo(58), Valbuena(35), Wood,T(3). K-Carpenter,M,
Peralta,Jh 2, Adams,Ma 2, Craig 3, Ellis,M, Cruz,T 2, Bourjos, Wong, Coghlan,
Alcantara 2, Castro,S, Castillo,W 2, Sweeney, Schierholtz, Wood,T, Ruggiano,
Bonifacio. BB-Peralta,Jh, Holliday, Cruz,T, Alcantara, Rizzo 2, Castro,S,
Valbuena 2, Castillo,W, Sweeney 3, Schierholtz, Ruggiano. WP-Martinez,C.
GWRBI: Peralta,Jh
Temperature: 75, Sky: clear, Wind: out to center at 18 MPH.
Attendance: 40,993
Game Time: 4:15