CHICAGO — It took a couple of generous gifts in the ninth inning from the Cubs for the Cardinals to celebrate their Sweet 16th.
The Cardinals scored two runs in the top of the ninth inning without the ball leaving the infield and ran away with a 4-2 heist Sunday for their 16th consecutive win. Now extending the club record for consecutive wins, the Cardinals also completed their regular-season road schedule with 11 consecutive and closed Wrigley Field for the winter with a four-game sweep.
The confines couldn’t have been friendlier in the top of the ninth.
They got hostile in the bottom of the ninth.
An infield fly rule became a point of contention as the Cardinals felt they one the game when a Cubs players strayed from second base at the conclusion of the play and was tagged out. Manager Mike Shildt was ejected for arguing the game should be over on the unusual double play – which the Cardinals have turned into the art form – and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt also got involved in the debate. Even after Shildt was ejected, bench coach Oliver Marmol approached the umps about where they placed the Cubs on the bases after the confusion. The tying run stood at second.
Didn’t matter.
Giovanny Gallegos struck out the final batter to secure the win anyway.
The game-winning rally began with a leadoff walk, included the perk of a wild pitch, and had the bonus run on a mishandled gimme-putt grounder. Backup catcher Andrew Knizner scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch to break a 2-2 tie. Rookie Lars Nootbaar followed by scoring the second run of the inning when pitcher Codi Heuer bobbled a grounder in front of the mound and had to settle for an out at first base. Nootbaar had already slid home.
The Cardinals got solo home runs from Goldschmidt and Harrison Bader earlier in the game. Bader’s third homer in as many days tied the game in the top of the seventh and rewarded the Cardinals’ middle relief for stalling the Cubs at two runs. The Cardinals hit 13 home runs in their four-game series sweep, their fourth consecutive series sweep and third on the road.
The Cubs unplugged Goldschmidt’s power in the ninth inning by giving him an intentional walk. Knizner opened the inning with a walk. Nootbaar followed with a bunt single. They each moved into scoring position on Tommy Edman’s sacrifice bunt, and that opened first base for the Cubs to give Goldschmidt and face Tyler O’Neill. Heuer didn’t get through the O’Neill at-bat without giving up two runs.
Gallegos handled the ninth for his 14th save, his 11th of the month.
The Cubs introduced some theatrics to their last inning in front of a home crowd, and the Cardinals . Two walks from Gallegos brought the potential winning run to the plate. That’s when a popup toward third looked to be the second out of the inning. The routine play went haywire when Nolan Arenado stumbled and the ball dropped in, in fair territory. The Cardinals promptly tried to spin the double play, but and infield fly rule had been called. At second base, Cubs leadoff hitter Rafael Ortega went past the bag, and before he got back to it, he was tagged. The umps didn’t see it that way. Arguments ensued.
The game was over four pitches later.
The winning streak persists.
The Cardinals had a slim chance of claiming a postseason berth Sunday if all other teams contending for the second NL wild card lost. Cincinnati did not.
The comeback victory – another in the line of them that has stacked up to the Cardinals’ club record 16 consecutive wins – did shave the Cardinals’ magic number down to two.
Relievers Andrew Miller and Kodi Whitley came into the game in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, and froze the deficit at one run.
Combined, the left-right combo struck out four of the seven batters they faced. Miller retired both of his two assigned batters, and Whitley tiptoed around two singles in the seventh to strike out the other three batters he faced. One of the most significant, if subtle, turnarounds for the Cardinals in the second half was having chase relievers who could pitch when the team trailed and buy time for the offense to arrive, if it ever did.
Miller and Whitley did their part.
Bader did his.
A day removed from the first four-hit game of his career, Bader sent his sixth homer of the month into the left-field bleachers to tie the game, 2-2. With that swing, Bader had his third homer of the series and improved to 10-for-15 this weekend with eight runs scored. Six of those 10 hits were for extra bases, and for good measure he stole two bases in the victory Saturday.
The Cardinals had not mustered much against Cubs starter Keegan Thompson or reliever Adbert Alzolay in his extended relief appearance. Goldschmidt thumped his ninth home run of the month to give the Cardinals a short-lived 1-0 lead.
Thompson struck out seven batters by the end of the third.
Alzolay took over in the fourth and retired the first six Cardinals he faced, two of them by strikeouts. It was with Alzolay on the mound in the top of the innings that the Cubs took their lead with one rally in the bottom of the fourth. When Willson Contreras started the fourth inning with a walk, and three of the first four Cubs of the inning reached base. Sergio Alcantara’s ground-rule double down the third-base line scored Contreras to knot the game, 1-1.
The Cubs took the lead on David Bote’s sacrifice fly.
That inning halted starter Jake Woodford’s scoreless streak at 11 innings. The rookie righthander has pitched his way into what could be a larger role in the coming week by taking over a spot in the rotation. He got help, as Cardinals pitchers do, from the defense to carry the scoreless streak into the fourth inning. Another double play turned by Goldschmidt helped Woodford through the third inning, and the rookie finished with 5 1/3 strong innings and two runs allowed on six hits.
