CARDINALS 7, CUBS 2
CHICAGO -- When the St. Louis Cardinals arrived at Wrigley Field for a three-game series, Manager Mike Matheny shook off questions about their 12½-game deficit to the surging Cubs by insisting he avoids looking at the standings.
"It's just not allowing me to fall into the trap, the trap of either being content or being overwhelmed," Matheny said.
Three games later, Cardinals showed the NL Central may not be sewn up just yet.
Michael Wacha pitched into the seventh inning for his first victory in nearly two months and the Cardinals waited out Jake Arrieta before roughing up Chicago's bullpen in a 7-2 victory over the Cubs on Wednesday.
Aledmys Diaz hit a two-run home run, and Matt Carpenter had a two-run double in a five-run sixth after Arrieta (11-2) departed. The Cardinals won their eighth consecutive road game -- their longest streak since 1982 -- and completed their first three-game sweep at Wrigley Field since 1988.
"This is a big series for us," Carpenter said.
Arrieta was charged with 2 runs -- 1 earned -- and 4 hits in 5 innings as he struggled with control (4 walks) and pitch count (106).
"Go back to work tomorrow and combat the things that teams have done against me recently," Arrieta said.
Wacha (3-7) allowed two hits until rookie Willson Contreras' one-out, two-run home run in the seventh ended his day.
Contreras replaced Miguel Montero an inning earlier after the catcher twisted his right knee. He said after the game he was fine.
The Cubs had three hits and committed several mental and defensive miscues. Their three-game skid matches the longest of the season.
"Give them credit. They pitched well, they really played well and they beat us fair and square," Manager Joe Maddon said.
Wacha set down the first nine batters before giving up two walks in the fourth and then Anthony Rizzo's opposite-field single against the shift with two out.
But the Cubs didn't score thanks to Chris Coghlan getting doubled off first base on a fly to left, and Wacha was able to snap a seven-game skid.
"It's been a while for sure," Wacha said.
The Cardinals made Arrieta work with long at-bats before taking advantage of Chicago's shoddy defense.
"We grinded 1 through 9, even Wacha had a pretty long at-bat (seven pitches) against him," Carpenter said. "We worked his pitch count and had runners on base. The error, that ended up being the difference in the game."
A single and two walks loaded the bases in the fifth with one out when Stephen Picotty hit a grounder to third. But second baseman Ben Zobrist's relay throw to first was a one-hopper, Rizzo couldn't dig it out for the double play, and two runs scored.
"That was a big moment there," Rizzo said. "I just missed it."
Justin Grimm replaced Arrieta and was charged with four runs while getting one out in a nightmare sixth for Chicago before Contreras hit his second big-league home run.
Rizzo later left the game as a precaution with a tight back.
"If it wasn't 7-0, I think I would have stayed in the game," Rizzo said.
GIANTS 7, PIRATES 6 Buster Posey threw out John Jaso attempting to steal second base to end the game, Joe Panik’s two-run double capped a three-run sixth inning, and San Francisco rallied from an early five-run deficit to beat host Pittsburgh.
MARLINS 3, BRAVES 0 Adam Conley pitched a career-high eight innings and host Miami broke Atlanta's six-game winning streak. Conley (4-4) became the first Marlins starter to pitch eight innings this year. He allowed 4 hits and 1 walk and threw 114 pitches to earn his first victory since May 16.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
ASTROS 3, ANGELS 2 Jose Altuve homered and Marwin Gonzalez's tiebreaking RBI triple in the eighth inning helped host Houston to its fifth consecutive victory, this one over Los Angeles. Will Harris allowed a run-scoring single by Kole Calhoun with one out in the ninth, but Yunel Escobar was out at second on the play. Harris then retired Mike Trout for his sixth save. Luke Gregerson (2-1) struck out one in a scoreless eighth for the victory.
INDIANS 6, RAYS 1 Trevor Bauer threw a three-hitter for his second career complete game, Jason Kipnis hit a two-run home run and host Cleveland defeated Tampa Bay for its sixth consecutive victory.
TIGERS 5, MARINERS 1 Steven Moya homered twice, and Detroit withstood a shaky fifth inning from right-hander Michael Fulmer to beat visiting Seattle.
WHITE SOX 8, RED SOX 6 Brett Lawrie hit a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning after Melky Cabrera had a tying, two-run shot, lifting Chicago over host Boston.
INTERLEAGUE
METS 4, ROYALS 3 Matt Reynolds (Arkansas Razorbacks) snapped a sixth-inning tie with his first major league home run, leading Noah Syndergaard and New York past visiting Kansas City for a two-game sweep in their World Series rematch. Asdrubal Cabrera homered for the second consecutive day and scored with an acrobatic slide to help Syndergaard (8-2) win his sixth consecutive decision. But there was bad news for banged-up New York -- injuries to Syndergaard (elbow stiffness) and slugger Yoenis Cespedes(wrist stiffness).
YANKEES 9, ROCKIES 8 Starlin Castro hit a game-winning home run to lead off the bottom of the ninth, and host New York rallied to beat Colorado. New York trailed 8-4 going into the seventh, but Carlos Beltran's three-run home run helped bail out CC Sabathia after his worst outing of the season.
BREWERS 4, ATHLETICS 2 Scooter Gennett and Kirk Nieuwenhuis homered to back Junior Guerra's first victory in more than a month, and visiting Milwaukee earned a split of its two-game interleague series against Oakland with a victory.
BLUE JAYS 5, DIAMONDBACKS 2 Russell Martin hit a three-run home run and Edwin Encarnacion and Troy Tulowitzki added solo shots as host Toronto ended Arizona's five-game winning streak. J.A. Happ (9-3) won his third consecutive start and maintained his streak of never having given up more than two earned runs in his fifth start against the Diamondbacks, who left nine runners on base.
RANGERS 6, REDS 4 Cole Hamels struck out eight in six solid innings, Prince Fielder had a two-run single and host Texas beat Cincinnati for a split in the two-game series.
ORIOLES 7, PADRES 2 Ubaldo Jimenez interrupted his exile to the bullpen with a sharp performance in a starting role, and Baltimore defeated visiting San Diego.
TWINS 6, PHILLIES 5 Max Kepler made up for a costly error with a tying single in the fifth inning and the go-ahead sacrifice fly in the seventh as host Minnesota handed Philadelphia its ninth consecutive loss.
Sports on 06/23/2016