(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen & Marco Stoovelaar)
 Cubs even NLDS vs. Cards on 'small ball'
Nederlands
 ST. LOUIS, Missouri (USA) -
The Chicago Cubs won Game 2 of the best-of-five National League Division Series vs. the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday-evening (October 10) with 6-3 to even the series.
At Busch Stadium, the Cubs rallied for five runs (all unearned) in the second inning and used 'small ball' to take the lead, executing two consecutive squeezes.
The Cardinals scored their runs on three homeruns.
The Cardinals opened the series on Friday with a 4-0 shutout-win.
In the regular season, the Cards met the Cubs at home in ten games and won seven of them.
Game Three will be played on Monday in Chicago.
While being two of the oldest baseball-franchises, the Cardinals and Cubs play against each other in a postseason for the first time.
In the regular season, the two teams have a long history and played 2,344 games against each other in the past 123 years!
The Cubs won 1,197 of these games.
The Cardinals had a strong pitching staff this season.
They led the Major League with the best ERA for the first time since 2005.
Their 2.94 ERA was the team's lowest since 1969 (also 2.94) and was the lowest in the Majors since 1988 when the pitching-staff of the New York Mets finished with a 2.91 ERA.
The pitching staff of the Cubs also can look back to a great season, as it led the Major League with 1,431 strikeouts.
Starting pitchers in this game were Jaime Garcia (10-6) for the Cardinals and Kyle Hendricks (8-7) for the Cubs.
Lefthander Garcia was on the disabled list twice this season, but since he returned back to action on July 27, he made 13 starts in the remainder of the season.
He missed the first part of the season while recovering from thoracic outlet surgery.
Garcia then missed a month from the end of June throuh July 27 with a left groin strain.
He made his last start against the Cubs on April 23, 2012.
This was his first postseason-appearance since starting Game 2 for the Cardinals in the 2012 NLDS.
...Yadier Molina catching for Puerto Rico vs. Netherlands...
...in the 2009 World Baseball Classic...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Righthander Hendricks made his postseason-debut tonight.
Before today, he faced the Cardinals once this season, which was a no-decision on May 5, throwing five innings.
Yadier Molina did the catching again for the Cardinals, just as in the opener.
When the Cardinals submitted its final 25-man roster on Friday-morning for the NLDS, Molina was on it.
It was questionable whether the veteran catcher would be on the roster.
On September 20, in a game against the Chicago Cubs, Molina injured his left thumb.
An MRI revealed a partial ligament tear, which kept him aside for the remainder of the season.
But now he is back and plays with special protective gear while catching and hitting.
There is only one back-up catcher on the roster.
'Yadi' plays for the Cardinals since 2004, won the World Series in 2006 and 2011 and won seven Gold Gloves.
His older brothers Bengie and José also caught in the Majors.
The experienced Puerto Rican catcher played in all three World Baseball Classics so far (2006, 2009, 2013) for the National Team of Puerto Rico.
On March 9, 2009, during the second WBC, Molina's double in the eighth inning was the key in a rally resulting in a 3-1 win vs. The Netherlands.
In 2013, he reached the WBC-final with Puerto Rico, winning the Silver Medal after losing to the Dominican Republic.
After the Cubs had stranded a runner on second base in the top of the first inning, the Cardinals opened the score moments later, as Matt Carpenter led off the bottom half of the inning with a homerun off of Kyle Hendricks.
...Playing for the Colorado Rockies,...
...Dexter Fowler participated in the...
...2011 European Big League Tour in...
...the Netherlands (here in Utrecht)...
...Tonight, Fowler was 2-for-5, scored...
...and had one RBI for the Cubs...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
The lead was shortlived, as the Cubs answered with a 5-run rally in the top of the second inning off of Jaime Garcia.
The Cubs scored their first three runs without the ball leaving the infield.
Starlin Castro led off with a single, but was forced out on a grounder to short by Austin Jackson.
However, while trying to complete a double play, second baseman Kolten Wong threw the ball past first base into the dug-out.
And with that, Jackson was awarded second base on the overthrow.
Jackson then stole third base and Miguel Montero walked.
Hereafter, Manager Joe Maddon opted for 'small ball' and that resulting in two perfectly executed safety squeezes and a 2-1 lead.
First, Kyle Hendricks bunted towards Garcia, who then threw the ball past first base.
Jackson scored the tying run, while Montero and Hendricks both advanced an extra base.
Next batter Addison Russell then also followed with a sacrifice bunt-squeeze that brought in Montero and gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead.
Chicago then scored its third run on an infield-hit by Dexter Fowler and Jorge Soler followed with a 2-run homerun that made it 5-1.
In the top of the third inning, Lance Lynn took over the pitching for Jaime Garcia.
This is Lynn's fifth consecutive postseason, all with the Cardinals, and he threw in 23 previous postseason-games.
But the righthander also gave up a run.
Lynn walked lead-off hitter Anthony Rizzo, who then advanced to third base on a single Starlin Castro.
With one out, Rizzo scored the sixth Chicago-run on a grounder by Miguel Montero.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Cards narrowed the deficit.
Kyle Hendricks began with two strikeouts, but then gave up back-to-back homeruns.
First, Kolten Wong homered, then pinch-hitter Randal Grichuk drilled the ball into the stands in deep leftfield to make it a 6-3 score.
That marked the end for Hendricks, who was relieved by Travis Wood.
The lefthander closed the inning with a strikeout.
With this, the Cardinals scored all three runs on homeruns.
In the regular season, the Cards hit 137 homeruns, which gave the team eleventh place in the National League.
The most homeruns were hit by the Los Angeles Dodgers (187).
In the top of the seventh inning, the Cubs appeared to have something in the making again as Dexter Fowler led off with a double and Jorge Soler walked.
The latter was then forced out on a grounder by Kris Bryant.
Hereafter, veteran Adam Wainwright became the new pitcher for the Cards.
He faced Anthony Rizzo, who lined out to third baseman Matt Carpenter, who then raced to the bag to make a double play, while Fowler dove back after the catch was made.
That resulted in a close play, but 3B Umpire Dana DeMuth made the correct call and ruled Fowler safe.
A challenge followed, but the call was upheld.
DeMuth is the crew chief of the 6-man umpiring crew and is a Major League-umpire since 1983.
This is DeMuth's tenth Division Series.
He also officiated in five League Championship Series and five World Series.
Moments later, the inning ended when second baseman Kolten Wong made a great play on a sharp grounder by Starlin Castro.
In the bottom of the seventh, Yadier Molina singled with two outs for the Cardinals, but stranded on first base.
In the top of the eighth, Wainwright struckout the side.
In the bottom of the eighth, Trevor Cahill became the new pitcher for the Cubs and also retired the side, including striking out the last two batters.
Hector Rondon pitched the bottom of the ninth inning for the Cubs.
With one out, he gave up a single to Jason Heyward, who was then forced out.
The inning and the game then ended when Mark Reynolds grounded out.
And with that, the Cubs won to even the Series.
For the Cubs, this was their first Division Series-win since 2003.
(October 10)
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