After last night’s game was postponed due to the weather conditions, the Chicago Cubs played the fourth – and final – game of the series against the St. Louis Cardinals. While the Cubs had more hits than its rival, the lack of clutch hitting was noticeable and Chicago couldn’t punish when they needed it the most.
The Cardinals took advantage of that, took an early lead and never looked back on their way to a 5-3 win in front of their crowd at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals scored four times in the second inning against starter Jason Hammel and that was enough to create an advantage they wouldn’t lose.
With the bases loaded, Yadier Molina crossed home on a groundout from Mark Ellis to score the first run. Michael Wacha added an RBI single to drive in both Allen Craig and Peter Bourjos. A double from Matt Carpenter brought Wacha home and in the blink of an eye, St. Louis jumped to a 4-0 lead.
The Cubs didn’t go down without a fight, something they’ve managed to do all season long. Starlin Castro hit a two-run homer in the fourth to make it 4-2 but an RBI single from Molina that scored Matt Holiday gave the Cardinals a three-run cushion.
The Cubs had a golden opportunity to shorten the gap in the eighth, loading the bases against Kevin Siegrist with one out. Trevor Rosenthal came into the game and despite the fact that he allowed a run – Anthony Rizzo scoring on a sac fly from Junior Lake – he managed to got off to a bases loaded jam grounding out pinch-hitter Nate Schierholtz.
Rosenthal retired the side in order in the ninth to pick up a five-out save, his 11th of the year.
The Cardinals moved back to .500 with a 20-20 record and managed to take two out of three in the series against a Cubs team that has been unable to be consistent. Whether it’s their pitching or their hitting, they haven’t been able to muster a whole lot of offense day in and day out, something that has them doomed to the last place of their division so far with a 13-25 record.