St. Louis Cardinals defeat Chicago Cubs 2-1 – MLB Update
The St. Louis Cardinals put in a defiant performance on Saturday, September 24 to beat the Chicago Cubs 2-1 to keep their NL wild-card race alive at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals went from behind, after losing the three-game opener, to beat the Chicago Cubs in a hard fought game.
Cardinals’ win did not come easy. Kyle Lohse pitched seven strong innings, allowing only six hits and a run with a 3.39 ERA to pave the way for victory for the team. Octavio Dotel, pitched a scoreless inning with two strike-outs while Marc Rzepczynski did
not allow any runs.
Rookie Adron Chambers did the unbelievable as he scored the winning run in the ninth inning after Ryan Theriot walked against the intimidating Carlos Marmol.
"I think people have written us off several times, and I think probably before today they probably wrote us off again," starter Kyle Lohse said. "To show we can gut it out, come back with a big win like that, is huge."
St. Louis is now two games behind the Atlanta Braves with this win. The Braves lost their game to the Washington Nationals 4-1 in a heavy blow to the team. However, the loss for the Braves means welcome news for the Cardinals.
The celebrations that ensued after the victory resulted in an awkward moment as team manager Tony La Russa got an accidental punch in the jaw. He did not seem to be ruffled by it although his jaw was sore.
"I'd need to have to settle down and replay the inning because I'm not sure exactly what happened," La Russa said. "Guys were excited, (stuff) flying all over that dugout. Right, left, elbows, high fives, low 10s."
For Chambers, the new rookies that the Cardinals now have in their arsenal, was buoyant. "It got far enough away that I was able to score pretty easily," Chambers said. "Man, goodness gracious. It was a nice one, wasn't it?"
Saturday’s game began with Kyle Lohse coming on the mound to pitch against Chicago. The Cubs’ Alfonso Soriano singled to left in the 3-hit inning to score the first run for the team.
Rodrigo Lopez pitched effective innings to keep the team’s lead intact which went into the ninth inning. Although Lohse did not allow any run either, the first inning damage was something the team needed to recover from.
While the Cubs seemed poised to win the game, Ryan Theriot walked in the ninth against Carlos Marmol and Rafael Furcal scored the tiebreaking and winning run to keep the Cardinals chances for the wild-card alive. The Cardinals will be looking to secure a
place in the play-offs with their impressive record.
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