Chicago Cubs Drop Magic Number to 2 in Win Over Cardinals
Kris Bryant homered and Kyle Hendricks threw eight strong innings in the victory
By James Neveau ••
The Chicago Cubs took another step toward a division title on Friday as they beat the St. Louis Cardinals in a rain-soaked game at Wrigley Field.
The win drops the Cubs’ magic number to clinch the division title to just two, and extends their division lead to a game and a half over the Milwaukee Brewers.
Kyle Hendricks was masterful once again, giving up two runs in eight innings of work. He ended the game with 199 innings pitched this season, a new career high.
Kris Bryant socked his 13th home run of the season, and Anthony Rizzo drove in a pair of runs for the Cubs as they won their third game in a row.
The Cubs got their scoring off to an early start against Adam Wainwright, as Rizzo singled to center field to score Daniel Murphy. Jason Heyward then followed that up with an RBI fielder’s choice, driving in Ben Zobrist to make it a 2-0 game.
Getty Images
Javier Baez #9 of the Chicago Cubs celebrates at home plate with Kyle Schwarber #12 of the Chicago Cubs after Schwarber's two-run home run in the fourth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on June 22, 2018 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati defeated Chicago 6-3. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Javier Baez launched a home run in the 14th inning of the team’s game against the Cardinals, making him the first Cubs player to have a home run in the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th innings of games.
SEPTA
Jason Heyward became the first Cubs player in 50 years to hit a walk-off grand slam while the team was trailing in a win over the Phillies. Just two months later, David Bote also joined him in that club.
Getty Images
The Cubs scored 10 or more runs in four consecutive games, marking the first time since 1930 that they had accomplished that feat.
AP
Javier Baez registered 19 home runs, 72 RBI, 25 doubles, six triples, and 18 stolen bases in the first half of the season. He is only the second player in MLB history to hit all of those milestones in the first half of a season, joining Willie Mays.
Getty Images
The Cubs used Tommy La Stella and Victor Caratini to pitch in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, marking the first time in modern history they’d used two position players to pitch in the same game.
US Drought Monitor
The Cubs tied a modern baseball record by turning seven double plays in a nine-inning game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Getty Images
David Bote became just the third Cubs rookie to hit multiple walk-off home runs in one season, joining Gabby Hartnett and Kris Bryant.
Amesbury Police
Tommy La Stella set a new Cubs record for pinch hits in a single season, registering his 21st hit with a single against the Phillies.
Getty Images
The Cubs registered their sixth shutout over the Brewers with a win at Wrigley Field, their most against a single opponent since they blanked the Cincinnati Reds seven times in 1928.
The score remained the same until the fourth inning, when Bryant launched a home run to deep center field to make it a 3-0 game. Rizzo hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Murphy in the bottom of the fifth, giving the Cubs a 4-0 advantage.
The Cardinals struck twice in the sixth inning, but the Cubs bounced right back as Murphy hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh and David Bote drew a bases-loaded walk in the eighth to add some critical insurance runs to the team’s lead.
Getty Images
Mientras que en el Progressive Field la joven plantilla de los oseznos era todo júbilo.
AP
Jake Arrieta threw a complete game shutout, and Kyle Schwarber launched a home run into the river in Pittsburgh to defeat the Pirates in the National Leauge Wild Card Game.
Getty Images
The Cubs won their first playoff series in 12 years when they outslugged the St. Louis Cardinals in a 3-1 series win. Kyle Schwarber hit another prodigious blast, this one landing on the top of the right field video board.
Getty Images
The Cubs’ sizzling bats went silent as Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, and the rest of the Mets held them in check in a four-game sweep.
NBC Bay Area
The Giants were poised to tie the series at 2-2 in Game 4, but the Cubs had other ideas, scoring four runs in the top of the ninth inning to stun the Giants and advance to the NLCS for the second straight year.
Getty Images
The Cubs were down 2-1 in the series and had been shutout in back-to-back games, but all of the sudden, the team’s bats came to life in Game 4 and never stopped, as the Cubs racked up 23 runs in the final three games of the series to finish off the Dodgers and punch their ticket to the World Series for the first time since 1945.
Nam Y. Huh/AP
Down 3-1 in the series, the Cubs had their backs against the wall, but the heroes of October had one more trick up their sleeves, as Kyle Schwarber roared back, Jon Lester pitched a stellar relief gem in Game 7, and Ben Zobrist won MVP honors in an epic series win over the Cleveland Indians that ended the team’s 108 year championship drought.
Getty Images
The Cubs advanced to the NLCS for the third straight year with a five-game series win over the Washington Nationals, and the final game was downright crazy, as the nearly five-hour game resulted in 17 runs, 23 hits, and two critical Nationals errors in a 9-8 Cubs victory.
Getty Images
The Dodgers, the best team in the National League during the regular season, made sure to make quick work of the Cubs, avenging their 2016 defeat in a five-game series victory.
The Cubs could clinch at least a share of the division title on Friday night if the Brewers fall in their series opener against the Detroit Tigers. At worst, the Cubs could potentially clinch the division title on Saturday.
The Cubs and Cardinals will resume their series at 12:05 p.m. Saturday afternoon at the Friendly Confines.
