Luke Weaver’s recent woes followed him into his start this afternoon, the Cardinals starter would throw 48 pitches through his first 2 innings.
The Cubs would plate four runs, bringing nine batters to the dish in the 2nd inning.
Weaver would labor, throwing 34 pitches, giving up 5 hits, stranding two.
Schwarber, Russell, and Heyward would start the inning with three straight singles, loading the bases for, possibly, the most feared 8-hole hitter in the league, Javier Báez.
Weaver would induce weak contact on Báez, forcing him to roll over the pitch to Carpenter at third. Carp’s only play was getting Báez at first, as Schwarber would score on the play.
Cubs starting pitcher, Tyler Chatwood, would lay down a sac-bunt next, bringing in Russell to make it 2-0 with only one out.
Weaver would come off the mound and field the bunt with his glove, tossing it to Yadi, who would tag Russell and originally be called out, before Joe Maddon decided to challenge the call on the field, to his advantage.
Zobrist kept the line moving, hitting an RBI single to RF, scoring Heyward.
After getting Bryant to pop out to Wong, Rizzo would come through with an RBI single, capping off the 4-run 2nd for the Cubs.
Before we go any further, worth mentioning that Tommy Pham was lifted for Harrison Bader in the bottom of the 2nd.
Weaver’s last 2 innings he would retire (6/7) Cubs batters, walking Heyward.
Weaver would collect his only strikeouts of the game in the 4th inning, getting Chatwood and Zobrist back-to-back.
Tyler Chatwood would Tyler Chatwood during the bottom half of the 4th, continuing his fascination of walking Cardinals batters.
Fowler and DeJong would start the inning off with walks before Wong would be HBP to load the bases for pinch-hitter, Greg Garcia.
Garcia would line a ball to CF for a sac-fly, getting robbed of a base hit from Jason Heyward.
With Bader batting, Rizzo would throw a ball wide of second base on a ground ball for an error, scoring DeJong.
Lumber Carp brought the lumber to tie the game, a deep double to the LF warning track, missing Babe Ruth’s glove to score Wong and Bader.
The Cardinals bullpen, minus an injured Dominic Leone (cramping right bicep), would have a heavy task ahead of them, having to complete 6 innings.
Recently activated LHP, Ryan Sherriff*, would pitch the 5th and 6th inning, giving up a run on a solo HR from Báez.
Sherriff’s stuff looked sharp today, his sinker stayed low in the zone and his slider had some extra movement.
The Báez HR wasn’t even a bad pitch, Báez went down and golfed a slider low and inside to LF, making it 5-4 Cubs.
Matt Bowman would come into the 7th, facing Bryant, Rizzo, & Contreras.
After getting Bryant to ground out to Carp, Rizzo would extend the Cubs lead on a solo shot to RF, 6-4.
Bowman would strikeout the next two batters (Contreras & Schwarber) ending the inning.
Greg Holland, who is still trying to put it all together, found himself in a 2 run game late, having to keep the game at no more than a two run deficit.
Addison Russell would leadoff the inning with a single to LF, bringing in Heyward.
Heyward, who robbed the Cardinals earlier, would get robbed following the single.
Harrison Bader would make a diving catch coming into shallow CF.
Holland’s slider seemed to be at its best today, as he ended the inning getting Zobrist to ground out to second, stranding two.
With a two run deficit heading into the 9th, Matheny would go with Jordan Hicks instead of his closer Norris.
With Kris Bryant leading off the inning, Yadier Molina would get tagged with a foul ball in the place you don’t wanna get tagged with a foul ball. Especially a foul ball on a 102 mph sinker.
Yadi would come out of the game and Bryant would lace a double into LF.
Hicks would get the next three (fly out, ground out, ground out) stranding Bryant at third.
The Drama:
The Cardinals would battle back in the bottom of the 9th, tying the game at 6 to take it into extra innings, their 6th extra inning game of the season.
Brandon Morrow would blow his first save as a Cub, starting his outing with a leadoff walk to Bader.
Carp would strikeout looking next, getting shafted by home plate umpire, Angel Hernandez. Hernandez would give Morrow back-to-back pitches on opposite sides of the plate.
Cafecíto would collect his second single of the afternoon, advancing Bader to second on the play.
This set up the fireworks for Swags Ozuna.
Finally beginning to live up to his nickname, Swags would rope a 2 RBI double to LF, tying the game 6-6.
Ozuna would be stranded at second after Peña and Fowler would pop and fly out.
With a brand new game going into extras, Matheny would go with his closer, and most reliable arm, Bud Norris.
Norris would get Russell to fly out to Swags and then give up a single to Heyward.
Norris would strikeout Báez next, but be pulled after feeling tingling in his right tricep.
Tyler Lyons would come in and have to get the last out, pinch-hitter Victor Caratini.
Caratini would line a ball that would find the leather of Carp at the hot corner, saving the game for the Cardinals.
The Cardinals would end things quickly in the bottom of the 10th, facing reliever Luke Farrell.
Farrell would walk DeJong, which is actually becoming a thing, believe it or not.
Kolten Wong would end the game on a 1-1 fastball up and in, crushing it down the RF line, hooking around the foul pole for a walk-off dinger.
The Cardinals are now (3-3) in extra inning games.
The Cardinals will likely have to make a a roster move Sunday morning, as Dominic Leone will rest for a few days. After the game Norris would say he needs a couple days of rest and try his best to avoid a DL stint. And if anyone saw Ortiz's cryptic "Confirming devistating news" tweet. Well. Bad news seems to be coming.
Sunday Night Baseball tomorrow night
so no Danny Mac
how dumb.
First pitch 7:05 c/t.
Thanks for reading, cheers!
Stew // @StewStilez
