(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Cubs hit 6 HRs to take 2-1 lead vs. Cards
Nederlands
 CHICAGO, Illinois (USA) -
The Chicago Cubs won Game 3 of the National League Division Series on Monday-evening (October 12) vs. the St. Louis Cardinals 8-6 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series.
The game featured eight homeruns, including a record six by the Cubs.
In Game 2, the Cubs used 'small ball', including two runscoring squeezes to win, tonight they used the 'long ball' to win.
Game Four will be played on Tuesday.
Later today, the day concluded with the third match-up between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets in their NLDS.
Earlier today, both American League Division Series were forced to go all the way.
The Houston Astros failed to hold onto a 6-2 lead vs. Kansas City Royals and lost 9-6, while the Toronto Blue Jays won 8-4 vs. Texas Rangers after having lost the first two games at home.
Both series will be concluded on Wednesday.
Recap Game 4, Royals vs. Astros
Recap Game 4, Blue Jays vs. Rangers
Starting tonight for the Cubs was ace rigthander Jake Arrieta, while righthander Michael Wacha started for the Cardinals.
Jake Arrieta was the winning pitcher for the Cubs in the NL Wild Card-game last week vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Arrieta was 22-6 this season with a 1.77 ERA, registering the most wins by a Cubs-pitcher since Ferguson Jenkins in 1971.
The last pitcher to win 22 in the Major League was Justin Verlander, who won 24 in 2011.
Michael Wacha was 17-7 this season, starting a career-high 30 games.
He is appearing in his third consecutive postseason with the Cards.
This season, Wacha was 1-2 in four starts vs. the Cubs.
In the top of the second inning, Jason Heyward led off with a double for the Cardinals, but later stranded on third base.
The Cubs then opened the score moments later in the home half when rookie Kyle Schwarber homered with one out.
After a scoreless third inning, the Cardinals scored twice in the fourth to erase the deficit.
Jake Arrieta walked Stephen Piscotty and Matt Holliday to begin the inning.
A strikeout followed, but then Piscotty scored the tying run when Jhonny Peralta doubled.
Moments later, the Cards took the lead on a grounder by Tommy Pham.
The Cubs tied the score imediately in the bottom of the fourth inning when Starlin Castro homered with one out.
With two outs, Addison Russell tripled, but he injured himself while sliding into third base.
Javier Baez took over as pinch-runner, then Miguel Montero was walked intentionally to get to pitcher Jake Arrieta, who then struckout.
...In 2012, Kris Bryant participated with Team USA in the international...
...Haarlem Baseball Week in the Netherlands...
...Here, he is caught stealing in a game vs. Japan...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the fifth inning, the Cubs scored three runs to take a 5-2 lead.
With one out, Jorge Soler singled and this time, Kris Bryant followed with a 2-run homerun.
In 2012, Bryant participated with Team USA in the international Haarlem Baseball Week in Haarlem, The Netherlands.
This season, Bryant led all rookies in the Major League in several categories, including homeruns (26), runs batted in (99), doubles (31) and runs scored (87).
The only other rookie to reach similar stats in his rookie-season was legendary Ted Williams, who did it in 1939, playing for the Boston Red Sox.
Bryant's homerun was the tenth this postseason by a rookie (all eight teams combined), which set a record.
Bryant's homerun also led to a pitching change.
Kevin Siegrist took over for Michael Wacha, but was greeted with a homerun by Anthony Rizzo.
In the top of the sixth, the Cards narrowed the deficit to 5-4 by scoring twice.
Matt Holliday led off with a single, then Jason Heyward homered.
Again, the Cubs answered immediately, also scoring twice in their sixth at bat off of new pitcher Seth Maness.
Chris Coghlan led off with a single and moved on a sacrifice bunt by Dexter Fowler.
Hereafter, Adam Wainwright took over for Maness, but he also was greeted with a homerun, a 2-run shot by Jorge Soler, the fifth Chicago-homerun.
And the runs and homeruns weren't over yet!
In the bottom of the eighth, Jonathan Broxton took over for Wainwright.
He began with a strikeout, but then gave up a homerun to Dexter Fowler.
That not only gave Chicago an 8-4 lead, it also set a new postseason-record with six homeruns.
In the top of the ninth, the Cards attempted a late comeback off of Hector Rondon, who replaced Pedro Strop.
He had retired the side in the eighth, including two strikeouts.
With one out, Rondon gave up a single to Randal Grichuk.
With two outs, Stephen Piscotty homered to narrow to deficit to 8-6.
But that was to be all for the Cards.
(October 12)
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