(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 St. Louis shuts out Chicago in NLDS-opener
Nederlands
 ST. LOUIS, Missouri (USA) -
The St. Louis Cardinals opened the best-of-five National League Division Series on Friday-evening (October 9) with a 4-0 shutout-victory vs. Chicago Cubs.
On Wednesday, the Cubs had won the Wild Card-game vs. Pittsburgh Pirates to advance to the NLDS.
Game Two will be played on Saturday.
Later on Friday, the Los Angeles Dodgers open their NLDS vs. New York Mets.
Earlier on Friday, the second games were played in the American League Division Series.
This year, the St. Louis Cardinals completed their 124th season in the National League with a 100-62 record, which was the best in the Majors.
The Cards won their eleventh NL Central Division-title and third in a row and and are now participating in their fifth consecutive postseason, which is their 12th in the past 16 seasons.
The Cardinals were in first place ever since April 17 and now are playing in their 30th postseason.
The Cardinals are led by Manager MIke Matheny, who became the first manager in Major League-history to have led a team to the postseason in his first four seasons.
The Cubs, who were 97-65 this year, are playing in their first postseason since 2008.
The team is led by Manager Joe Maddon, who is in his first year with the club.
He became the sixth Cubs-manager to lead the team to the postseason in his first year.
The last to do so was Lou Piniella in 2007.
The Cardinals and Cubs met each other for the first time ever in the postseason.
Two aces started the game, righthander John Lackey (13-10) for the Cardinals, lefthander Jon Lester (11-12) for the Cubs.
The Cardinals got on the board quickly, scoring their first run in the bottom of the first inning.
With one out, rookie Stephen Piscotty hit a ground-rule double and scored on a following single by Matt Holliday.
Hereafter, it was a true pitching-duel.
Lackey retired the first 10 batters he faced.
He then walked Kyle Schwarber with one out in the fourth inning, but a double play followed.
...Pedro Strop pitching for the Dominican Republic against...
...The Netherlands in the 2013 World Baseball Classic semi-final...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Lackey added three outs in the fifth, but his No-Hitter then ended when Addison Russell led off the sixth inning with a single.
Russell stole second base with one out, but then was left behind.
With one out in the top of the eighth inning and still leading only 1-0, Lackey was relieved by Kevin Siegrist.
He struckout the next two batters to keep the shutout intact.
In the meantime, Lester did very well for the Cubs.
After giving up the run in the first inning, he gave up only two more basehits in the next six innings and allowed only two runners to reach second base.
But that changed in the bottom of the eighth inning.
With one out, pinch-hitter Tommy Pham homered in his first-ever postseason at bat to double the lead.
Hereafter, Lester walked Matt Carpenter and was replaced by Pedro Strop.
A few years ago, the Dominican-born pitcher was eligible to play for the Netherlands National Baseball Team.
He opted to pitch for the Dominican squad and threw against the Dutch Team in the semi-final of the 2013 World Baseball Classic.
The Dominican Republic went on to win the event.
Tonight, Strop was less successful.
First, Carpenter advanced to second base on a passed ball, then Strop was greeted with a 2-run homerun by Stephen Piscotty that gave the Cards a 4-0 lead.
In the top of the ninth, Trevor Rosenthal became the new pitcher for St. Louis.
He began with a strikeout, then walked pinch-hitter Jorge Soler, but followed with another strikeout.
Next, Kyle Schwarber singled.
With two runners on base, Rosenthal struckout his third batter to end the game.
(October 9)
| 
