A double, an infield single, an intentional walk, and a throwing error led the St. Louis Cardinals (49-24) to a 10-inning 3-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs (39-33) Friday night at Busch Stadium. All this happened with nobody out as the Cardinals extended their already big lead in the N.L. Central to eight games.
Peter Bourjos led off the inning with a double down the line. Kolten Wong's ground ball up the middle hit the second base bag, keeping shortstop Starlin Castro from making the play and at least getting an out. Cubs manager Joe Maddon then elected to put Matt Carpenter on and load the bases for a force out at the plate and potential double play.
Maddon brought right fielder Mike Baxter in to form a five-man infield. Jhonny Peralta found Baxter on the right side, and Baxter's throw got past catcher David Ross to allow Bourjos to score the game-winning run. The entire inning is summarized here.
The Cardinals trailed 2-1 in the bottom of the eighth when they sent up pinch hitter Greg Garcia, who was 4 for 8 in his limited time with the Cardinals. Garcia had just 27 home runs in 5+ Minor League seasons, but he tied the game at 2-2 with his first Major League home run (1), which just made it over the center field wall.
St. Louis took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on Randal Grichuk's RBI triple, which scored Yadier Molina from first. The Cubs tied it in the fourth on Baxter's RBI single and then took that 2-1 lead in the seventh when Kris Bryant drove home Dexter Fowler with a sacrifice fly.
Seth Maness (W: 2-0, 3.21 ERA) got the final two outs, including one strikeout, in the top of the 10th to pick up the victory. Cardinals starter John Lackey pitched seven very strong innings, allowing two earned runs on eight hits while walking three and fanning five.
Justin Grimm (L: 1-2, 1.53) allowed the unearned run in no innings. He walked one and allowed two hits. Cubs starter Jake Arrieta pitched stellar baseball, allowing one run on three hits in seven innings. He walked two and struck out seven.
The series continues Saturday at 7:15 p.m. EDT. Donn Roach (0-0, ---) will make his Cubs debut. He had one Major League start and 15 relief appearances with the San Diego Padres last year. The Cardinals will send Michael Wacha (9-3, 2.85) to the mound.
Sunday's series finale is the Sunday Night Game of the Week and features Jason Hammel against Carlos Martinez.