CHICAGO (AP) — The young sluggers of the Chicago Cubs are making themselves at home in the playoffs. On a rare off-night for Jake Arrieta, the Windy City rookies bashed their way to the brink of the NL Championship Series.
Rookies Jorge Soler, Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber, along with Starlin Castro, Anthony Rizzo and Dexter Fowler, connected during a six-homer show for the Cubs, who beat the St. Louis Cardinals 8-6 on Monday to take a 2-1 lead in the NL Division Series. Arrieta struck out nine before departing in the sixth inning, and the bullpen finished the job in the first postseason game at Wrigley Field in seven years.
With a third straight Cubs win Tuesday afternoon, the once woebegone franchise will advance to the NLCS for the first time in 12 years. The Cardinals, who led the majors with 100 wins this season, have won at least one playoff series each of the past four years.
Jason Heyward and Stephen Piscotty homered for St. Louis, which got to Arrieta for four runs in his worst start in four months. But the Cardinals were unable to keep the Cubs in the ballpark.
The six homers by Chicago set a franchise record for a playoff game and were one more than the five long balls hit by Cubs in Game 1 of the 1984 NLCS against San Diego.
The Cardinals trailed 8-4 before Piscotty hit a two-run shot with two out in the ninth. It was a scary moment for a towel-waving crowd of 42,411 used to playoff heartache. But Hector Rondon retired Matt Holliday on a harmless bouncer to second, and the party was on.
Arrieta improved to 18-1 with a 1.00 ERA in his past 22 starts dating to June 21, but he was far from his usual dominant self. He hadn’t allowed more than three runs in a game since a June 16 loss to Cleveland.
It didn’t matter — not one bit.
Schwarber, Castro and Bryant homered against Michael Wacha in his first playoff appearance since he threw the final pitch of the 2014 postseason for the Cardinals, which was a game-ending, three-run shot by Travis Ishikawa in the NLCS.
Bryant’s two-run drive made it 4-2 with one out in the fifth and chased Wacha in favor of Kevin Siegrist. Rizzo followed with another long ball, a drive to deep right for his first hit of the playoffs.
Even Adam Wainwright got into the act by serving up Soler’s two-run shot in the sixth. Soler, who struggled with injuries for much of the year, is 4-for-4 with two homers, four RBIs and five walks in the series.
— Associated Press —