St. Louis Cardinals resurge to defeat Chicago Cubs 6-2 – MLB Update
The St. Louis Cardinals resurged after two ordinary games to defeat the Chicago Cubs 6-2 and successfully avoid a whitewash at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois on Sunday, August 21.
Jake Westbrook was the standout pitcher as he pitched seven precise innings to restrict the Cubs’ batters to just two runs amid seven hits. Although he committed two errors but his performance, on the whole, was splendid. He managed 62 strikes from his 100
pitches to bring down his earned-run average for the season to 4.70. This was his tenth win of the season with just seven losses to his credit thus far.
Jason Motte and Fernando Salas took over the pitching duties in the eighth and the ninth inning respectively and carried on with the hard work put in by Westbrook. Both of them pitched perfect innings to restrict the Cubs to a total of just two-runs.
Rodrigo Lopez could not help the Cubs from the mound as the starter was unglued for five runs by the Cardinals in 5.1 innings amid ten hits. Lopez was unable to handle the pressure at the big stage and committed five errors. His misery can be gauged from
the fact that four of the five runs came as home-runs.
Jon Jay and Yadier Molina hammered back-to-back homers at the top of the second inning to hand Cardinals a strong two-run lead early in the game. Geovany Soto made a humble reply for the Cubs in the third inning but Albert Pujols came out strong in the fifth
inning to smash a 401 feet homer and take the pressure back to the Cubs.
The Cubs, who have been strong in the first two games of the series, did not seem to be the same outfit. Molina alone was enough for Chicago as he smashed his second home-run in the sixth inning to take the score to 5-2 before Daniel Descalso’s effort in
the same inning completed the six runs for the Cardinals.
The Cardinals are still in contention in the National League Central division. They are 8.5 games behind Milwaukee Brewers and have a distant chance of toppling the leaders.
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