CARDINALS 8, CUBS 7
ST. LOUIS -- Tommy Pham and Randal Grichuk homered and drove in two runs each and the St. Louis Cardinals denied the Chicago Cubs a chance at clinching the NL Central with an 8-7 victory Tuesday night.
Matt Carpenter and Jedd Gyorko also homered for St. Louis, which remains 2 1/2 games behind the second wild card spot. Zach Duke (1-1) got the victory with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. Juan Nicasio earned his fifth save.
The Cubs were seeking to clinch the Central division with either a victory or a Milwaukee loss against Cincinnati, but the Brewers beat the Reds 7-6.
The Cardinals' magic number for elimination from the wild-card race shrank to three as Colorado won, but the club did ensure itself of a sixth consecutive winning season under manager Mike Matheny and a 10th consecutive winning season overall.
The Cardinals are 82-75 with five games left, including two more with the Cubs here before Milwaukee, still one game ahead of the Cardinals in the wild-card chase, comes in for the weekend.
Cardinals right-hander Carlos Martinez allowed 3 runs -- 2 earned -- and 4 hits in 4 1/3 innings. Cubs right-hander Jake Arrieta (14-10) allowed 5 runs -- 3 earned -- and 6 hits in 3 innings, his second shortest outing this season.
St. Louis scored five runs in the first two innings off Arrieta.
Carpenter led off the bottom of the first with his 23rd home run.
The home run, his 15th career leadoff shot, was just his second hit in 33 career at-bats against Arrieta, who was his teammate at TCU and a groomsman in Carpenter's wedding. Both those hits are home runs.
The Cardinals added two runs in the first. Dexter Fowler, who hit a triple, scored on a two-out fielding error by shortstop Mike Freeman. Then Grichuk followed with an RBI triple.
Chicago scored in the second when Ian Happ tripled and scored on a groundout by Kyle Schwarber.
Pham hit a two-run home run, his 23rd, to left field in the second to extend the Cardinals' lead to 5-1.
The Cubs loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth but only scored one run, which came on a catcher's interference.
Paul DeJong had an RBI double in the fifth for St. Louis.
Gyorko and Grichuk both hit solo home runs in the seventh, extending the Cardinals' lead to 8-3. Gyorko's home run was his 20th, Grichuk's his 21st.
Jason Heyward hit a three-run home run, his 11th, off reliever John Brebbia in the eighth to cut the deficit to 8-6. Ben Zobrist hit a solo home run off Brebbia, his 12th, to make it 8-7.
Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina left Monday's game after taking two foul balls to the catcher's mask. He's expected to rest 48 hours, as part of the concussion protocol, and will then be reevaluated.
"I've been hit in the head many times but not twice in a row like last night," Molina said Tuesday. "Last night was pretty bad. I was in pain. I was confused. The nausea went away. I'm resting for two days, then we are going to test it again."
Cubs' 2B Javier Baez (knee soreness) left Monday's game after fouling a pitch off his right leg and was not in the starting lineup on Tuesday but pinch hit in the ninth.
Center fielder Albert Almora left the game in the fifth after stumbling and falling into the center field wall while chasing DeJong’s double. The Cubs announced he had a right shoulder contusion and X-rays were negative.
Cardinals’ first baseman Jose Martinez (thumb) returned as a pinch-hitter after missing the previous three games.
Pham was pinch-hit for in the eighth inning. The Cardinals announced he had a left side contusion after being hit by a pitch in the sixth inning.
Sports on 09/27/2017