The St. Louis Cardinals took a 1-0 lead in their NL Division Series matchup with the Chicago Cubs, beating an overmatched Chicago club 4-0.
St. Louis took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, and that would prove to be more than enough for John Lackey. Stephen Piscotty hit a one-out ground rule double in the opening frame off of Jon Lester, and scored on a single by Matt Holliday. That RBI single would be all for the scoring until the eighth inning.
Meanwhile, both pitchers turned in clinics on the mound. Lackey set down the first ten Cubs hitters in a row for the Cardinals, and didn’t allow a hit until Addison Russell led off the sixth with a single. The Cubs barely threatened all night – they got Russell to second with one out and to third with two outs in the sixth, but couldn’t bring him in. In the seventh, Kyle Schwarber led off with a bunt single to beat the shift, but was erased on an Anthony Rizzo double play after a Kris Bryant strikeout.
Meanwhile, Lester was also in cruise control after his rough opening inning. The Cardinals couldn’t make anything of a two-out Kolten Wong double in the second, and stranded Jason Heyward after a leadoff single in the fourth. In fact, Lester set down 13 in a row after Heyward’s single…which took the game into the eighth inning, when the wheels came off for the Cubs.
Lester got Wong to ground out to start the eighth. Then pinch hitter Tommy Pham came up for Kevin Siegrist, and absolutely tattooed a solo homer to make it a 2-0 game.
After walking Matt Carpenter, Lester was pulled and replaced by Pedro Strop. Strop then tacked another run onto Lester’s final line for the evening, allowing a long homer to Piscotty, increasing the Cardinals’ lead to 4-0.
Trevor Rosenthal shut the door in the ninth, notching a scoreless frame, allowing one hit, walking one and striking out two.
For the evening, Lackey allowed just those two hits over 7 1/3 shutout innings, walking one and striking out five. Lester wasn’t bad, also going 7 1/3, but giving up three runs on five hits, striking out nine and walking one. Offensively, no one really shined for the Cubs – Schwarber went 2/4 with a double and a walk, accounting for three of the five times the Cubs had hitters on base. Just a week removed from that terrifying collision in Pittsburgh, Piscotty went 2/4 with two runs, two RBI, a double, and a homer – no other Cardinal reached base more than once.
This is a big win for the Cardinals, because it ensures that the Cubs will need to win one game started by a pitcher other than Lester or Arrieta to win the series. Furthermore, it helped slow some of the Cubs’ momentum – coming into this game, their last loss was on September 26th in Pittsburgh.
Game 2 will be on Saturday at 5:30 PM, and will pit Jaime Garcia of the Cardinals against Kyle Hendricks of the Cubs. Will the Cubs hitters not named “Schwarber” wake up? They’re going to eventually need to if Chicago wants to advance to the NLCS.
