Hungry Cubs slice magic number to 1

Chicago Cubs’ shortstop Addison Russell dives into the stands while chasing a foul ball during the second inning against the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night in St. Louis. The Cubs defeated the Cardinals 10-2, moving within a victory of clinching their second consecutive division title.
Chicago Cubs’ shortstop Addison Russell dives into the stands while chasing a foul ball during the second inning against the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night in St. Louis. The Cubs defeated the Cardinals 10-2, moving within a victory of clinching their second consecutive division title.

ST. LOUIS — Things got a little cheesy for the Chicago Cubs Monday night at Busch Stadium, and the Cubs were all smiles afterward.

Chicago beat the St. Louis Cardinals 10-2 to eliminate St. Louis from NL Central title contention, and the Cubs moved within one victory, or one Milwaukee Brewers loss, of winning their second consecutive division title.

Chicago shortstop Addison Russell started the Cubs’ fun with a three-run double in the first inning off Luke Weaver (7-2), then dove into the stands down the left-field line in pursuit of a foul pop in the second inning.

Russell didn’t catch the ball, but he knocked a large plate of nachos out of the hand of Cardinals fan Andrew Gudermuth, a 21-year-old from suburban Chesterfield.

Gudermuth would later forgive the Cubs shortstop who hand delivered a new plate of food a few innings later.

“That was pretty entertaining,” Cubs Manager Joe Maddon said.

Russell decided to make the delivery to Gudermuth when one of the Cubs clubhouse men came into the dugout with a new plate of nachos.

CUBS 10, CARDINALS 2

“Normally I don’t do that,” Russell said with a laugh. “But being the case of me being nachoed all over, even on my cleats, I thought ‘What, why not?’ A once-in-a-lifetime experience. He had a great night at the ballgame.

“You don’t want to get in front of a man and his nachos.”

Russell stopped to take a selfie with Gudermuth and his girlfriend before heading back to play shortstop.

The loss eliminated St. Louis from NL Central contention but did not have as negative of an impact on the Cardinals’ wild-card hopes.

Colorado entered Monday leading Milwaukee by two games and St. Louis by 2 1/2, and the Cardinals are still 2 1/2 back after the Florida Marlins defeated the Rockies 5-4. The idle Brewers moved within 1 1/2 games of the Rockies.

Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina was taken out of the game in the seventh inning after he took two foul balls off his catcher’s mask. Carson Kelly took over for Molina. St. Louis announced Molina is in concussion protocol.

“I haven’t heard from the medical team yet and I don’t know what’s going on,” St. Louis Manager Mike Matheny said. “Obviously, the first one gave us some concern. After checking him, he said everything was OK and he was ready to go and he just needed a second.

“Unfortunately, the second one got him a little bit better and at that point, there was not going to be a conversation. We needed to get him out.”

Jon Lester (12-8) pitched six innings, allowing five hits and a run for the Cubs. Chicago is 11-2 in its last 13 games and 19-8 in its last 27.

Lester brought an 8.22 ERA over his last five starts, allowing seven earned runs in two of those outings.

“Much better game tonight,” Lester said. “I felt better.”

Javier Baez hit a three-run home run in the third inning, but left the game shortly after fouling a pitch off his left leg in the eighth inning. Not until after hitting a single, though. Maddon said he thought Baez might be able to play today.

Kris Bryant hit a home run and added two singles for Chicago.

Weaver gave up eight runs over three innings. Chicago stopped his streak of winning seven consecutive starts, the longest by any Cardinals rookie since Ted Wilks in 1944.

With two outs in the first, Russell hit a double to right, scoring Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist. Jason Heyward followed Russell with a run-scoring double.

Bryant hit his 29th home run of the season in the second with two outs for a 5-0 Cubs lead.

Jedd Gyorko, who hit the foul ball that caused Russell to dive into the stands, got a run back for the Cardinals in the second with a one-out home run, the first of his three hits, to cut the lead to 5-1.

Baez hit his first home run since Sept. 13 with two outs, driving in Zobrist and Heyward in the third, giving Chicago an 8-1 advantage.

St. Louis rookie Luke Voit hit a pinch-hit home run in the seventh.

The Cubs added two runs in the eighth to complete the scoring.

NATIONALS 3, PHILLIES 1 Michael Taylor homered, A.J. Cole allowed one run while pitching into the sixth inning and visiting Washington beat Philadelphia.

BRAVES 9-2, METS 2-3 Seth Lugo pitched two-hit ball over six innings, and Travis d’Arnaud hit a record-setting home run for host New York in a doubleheader split with Atlanta. D’Arnaud helped New York rebound from a 9-2 loss in the opener with his solo shot in the eighth. It was the 219th home run for the Mets, a franchise season mark. The sparse crowd at Citi Field jeered when the home run apple didn’t rise after d’Arnaud’s home run, then cheered when it finally came out of the bin it’s housed in three batters later.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

BLUE JAYS 6, RED SOX 4 Josh Donaldson homered and drove in three runs, powering visiting Toronto past American League East-leading Boston. Boston’s six-game winning streak was snapped and its magic number to clinch a second consecutive division title remained at three. The Red Sox lead the second-place New York Yankees, who beat Kansas City earlier in the day, by four games with six remaining.

ASTROS 11, RANGERS 2 Marwin Gonzalez had four hits and three RBI as American League West champion Houston beat host Texas, putting the Rangers on the brink of elimination in the wild-card race. Gonzalez had two hits and scored twice in an eight-run fourth inning, including a two-run single that chased starter Andrew Cashner (10-11).

WHITE SOX 4, ANGELS 2 James Shields tossed seven strong innings, Nicky Delmonico drove in two runs and host Chicago beat Los Angeles, dealing a serious blow to Los Angeles’ slim playoff hopes. With six games remaining, the Angels trail Minnesota by five games for the second AL wild card.

Sports on 09/26/2017

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