The St. Louis Cardinals coming into this series was not looking good at all. They had just come off losing three of four to the Philadelphia Phillies and now they had the task off playing their arch-rivals in an all-important series. After what happened earlier in the season in Chicago, the Cardinals were looking for revenge and they got it.
St. Louis Cardinals Sweep the Chicago Cubs
The Cardinals were a game under .500 coming into the series against the Chicago Cubs. The last time these two teams met it was in Chicago when the Cubs swept the Cardinals. The Cardinals were in first place at the time until they got knocked out by the Cubs. The Cubs were struggling coming into the series against the Cardinals the first time around but turned it around after the series. This time the tables turned.
The Cardinals had home-field advantage this time around and it proved to help. This rivalry is already heated and now throw on top of it Kris Bryant and his comments earlier this off-season about how St. Louis was boring. The Cardinals swept the Cubs this time around. They also knocked the Cubs out of first place and now have a four-game winning streak. Maybe the Cardinals can do what the Cubs did and turn the season around after a series with their rivals.
Friday
On Friday, the Cubs and Cardinals are playing their second series this season. Shifted to St Louis, Kris Bryant got a taste of what St. Louis was like. Every time he came up to bat the fans booed him. I guess that’s what you get when you talk about a city like that. The game was a very close one. The Cardinals won 2-1 in extra innings on a walk-off hit by Matt Carpenter. It was a pitching duel all game.
Yu Darvish pitched for the Cubs as he went six innings, gave up three hits and one run on six strikeouts. Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas went seven innings, gave up six hits and one run on three strikeouts. The Cardinals only had to use two relievers while the Cubs had to use six relievers. This clearly favored the Cardinals going into extras. The Cardinals saw an opportunity to strike in the tenth. The Cubs put on a very interesting shift for Matt Carpenter. They only had two outfielders and they had four infielders on the left side of the field. This came back to haunt Cubs manager Joe Maddon as Carpenter hits the ball the opposite of left field where nobody was and the Cardinals won it. That was two wins in a row for the Cardinals and they tried to make it a series win as of Saturday.
Saturday
As expected, another great crowd showed up for Saturday night’s game. This game was tight until late. Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty and Cubs pitcher Jose Quintana both gave up two runs but looked to settle down as the game went on. Then in the fifth inning with the game tied at two, the rain came. There was a three and a half hour rain delay. Usually, if there is a delay that long they call the game but with an early game on Sunday they just wanted to wait it out.
The game finally started again just before 11:30 CT at night. After the delay, the Cardinals exploded in the sixth. The Cardinals came out swinging and put up three runs to give them a little breathing room. The Cubs made it interesting again in the seventh as they made it a one-run game. The Cardinals didn’t want to make fans disappointing and watch a loss after a long rain delay so they got it going again. They added two more runs in the eighth and that was the ball game. The Cardinals went home very early in the morning with a 7-4 victory and a series win. They will be looking for the sweep tomorrow in the afternoon game.
Sunday
The Cardinals and Cubs played the series finally on a great day in St. Louis. The Cardinals were looking to return the favor and sweep the Cubs this time around and they did. Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright was fantastic. Waino threw eight innings, gave up two hits and no runs with eight strikeouts. He gave up seven walks which is not good but he got out of it by generating a lot of double plays.
Cole Hamels wasn’t that bad either. He went seven innings, gave up two hits and one run with four strikeouts. In the eighth inning, the Cubs were knocking on the door after the Cardinals were up 1-0. Anthony Rizzo hit a blooper into right field but second basemen Kolten Wong made an outstanding leaping catch to save a run. The next inning the Cardinals added an insurance run to make it 2-0. The Cubs made it interesting again in the ninth as they scored a run but the Cardinals hung on and swept the Cubs with a 2-1 victory.
Last Word
This was a fun weekend for the Cardinals as they sweep the Cubs out of St. Louis and knock the Cubs out of first. These two teams are tight right now and face off against each other again this weekend in Chicago for a three-game series. This division will be tight again and will probably come down to the last week or day. This is certainly going in the right direction for the Cardinals after a bad month of May. As for the Cubs, they are looking to get back and track and take back the division lead.
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