With the All-Star Break approaching within the next 10 days, the St. Louis Cardinals began what arguably could be considered their most important stretch of games yet this season, with a four game series against two of their National League Central rivals: the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
On Monday night, they faced off against the Cubs in game one of the four game series.
And the Cardinals started the series off right, defeating the Cubs 6-0.
The pitching matchup for the evening featured former Boston Red Sox teammates, as John Lackey (6-5, 3.30 ERA) for the Cardinals went up against Jon Lester (4-6, 3.74) for the Cubs.
In the second inning, after a 1-2-3 top half by Lester, Lackey had to work his way out of an early jam. It started off by a fly out by Miguel Montero, and then a lineout by Starlin Castro. With two outs, Jorge Soler doubled, bringing up Dexter Fowler, who walked. Lester then singled, notching his first career MLB hit (he was previously 0-66 at the plate).
With the bases loaded, Lackey rebounded, getting Addison Russell to strike out, ending the threat.
Both Lackey and Lester continued to duke it out in a pitchers duel over the course of the game, with Lester throwing a no-hitter against the Cardinals until the top of the seventh inning, when All-Star shortstop Jhonny Peralta hit a single down the third base line.
For the St. Louis Cardinals (and for Lackey), the biggest moment in the game probably occurred in the sixth inning. With the score still tied at 0-0, Anthony Rizzo led off with a single to center field. Kris Bryant then singled, advancing Rizzo to third base, putting runners on the corners with nobody out.
The veteran Lackey, however, didn’t look worried. In a long at-bat, he was able to strike out Montero, bringing up Castro with runners still on the corners. And Castro hit a ground ball to second baseman Kolten Wong, who amazingly flipped it to Peralta, who threw it fast to Mark Reynolds to get an amazing double play, ending the inning, as the crowd at Wrigley Field was full of admiration of the play that had just happened.
During the top of the seventh inning, following the one out base hit by Peralta, Jason Heyward reached on a force attempt, and a subsequent throwing error by Bryant advanced Peralta to third base. All-Star Yadier Molina followed with a sacrifice fly, that scored Peralta, finally putting the Cardinals on the board, 1-0.
Wong stepped up to the plate next, and hit a two out single into left field, that scored Heyward, giving the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
As for Lester, despite throwing a no-hitter for most of the game, his day ended when Mike Baxter pinch hit for him in the bottom of the seventh inning. Lackey also threw his last inning in the seventh, and shut down the Cubs, keeping the score 2-0 heading into the eighth inning.
Peter Bourjos entered the game to pinch hit for Lackey, but the Cardinals were put down in order 1-2-3 by reliever Justin Grimm. Kevin Siegrist entered to pitch the bottom of the eighth in relief of Lackey, whose final line was: John Lackey: 7 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 Ks.
In the top of the ninth,with Edwin Jackson on the mound, the Cardinals got on the board again, when Reynolds hit a sacrifice fly that scored Peralta, making it 3-0. But that wasn’t it. Randal Grichuk doubled home both Molina and Wong to make it 5-0, and Bourjos singled home Grichuk to make it 6-0 Cardinals.
And that turned out to be the final score, as Mitch Harris pitched a shutout bottom of the ninth as St. Louis took game one of the four game series by the score of 6-0. Lackey improves to 7-5 while Lester drops to 4-7. The Cardinals are now 54-28, while the Cubs fall to 44-37.
The victory was their eighth shutout of the year, and their fourth straight road win.
Tomorrow, Tyler Lyons will pitch game one of the doubleheader, and Tim Cooney is scheduled to pitch the second game.
(Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images)
