The Cubs and Cardinals completed their second 5 game series of the season, playing at Wrigley Field September 4th through September 7th. It featured one doubleheader, played on Saturday. The Cubs lost the series 3-2.
BUT WE DID GET A BINGO! FINALLY!
September 4th:
Cubs Win 4-1
Yu Darvish was the story yet again, taking a perfect game into the 6th. He gave up a solo homer to Carpenter, and finished with a great 7 innings 1 ER start. Wick and Jeffress had scoreless innings out of the pen.
The Cubs bats held their weight, coming in the form of the Willson Contreras show. Contreras had all 4 Cubs RBI, coming on 2 RBI hits and a solo homer.
September 5th: Game 1
Cubs Lose 2-4
Adbert Azolay had a tough start, walking 5 in 2.2 innings. Fortunately, he gave up just two runs, but took 78 pitches to get there. Tepera came in and gave up 2 runs. Jason Adam had a 2 inning baserunner free outing, and Winkler had a perfect inning as well.
The Cubs bats had a tough night, unless your name is Ian Happ. Happ had two solo home runs, staying red hot. Unfortunately, that was it for the team.
September 5th: Game 2
Cubs Lose 1-5
Colin Rea had a tough start, giving up 4 runs in 2 innings. Underwood had a fancy 6 pitch inning. Tyson Miller had a solid 3 inning 1 ER performance.
Cubs bats were silent once again. They had just 3 hits, scoring 1 run in the 6th on a Bote groundout. They did walk 6 times, but didn't do anything with it.
September 6th:
Cubs lose 3-7
Jon Lester did not have it again, only making it into the 4th. 5 ERs on 8 baserunners made for yet another tough start. Besides Osich getting lit up, the rest of the bullpen was actually good. Winkler had 1.2 scoreless innings. Kimbrel had a scoreless 2 K inning.
Rizzo and Kipnis had home runs, and that was it. Just 6 hits and 2 walks.
September 7th:
Cubs win 5-1
Kyle Hendricks was great, throwing 8 innings of 1 run ball. He scattered 7 hits and struck out just 4, but walked nobody. Excellent start for the professor. Wick came on for a perfect 9th.
The Cubs hitting manufactuered 5 runs without aid of a homer. 10 hits and 5 walks. RBIs to Rizzo, Contreras, and Kipnis. They took advantage of some Cardinal slops.
Cubs are now 23-18 and have a 2.5 game lead over the Cardinals. They had to not get swept this series, and came away with 2 wins. They tie the Cardinals for the season series at 5-5, which is good enough.
Matt failed to wear the Sparklepants for September 5th/6th, and the Cubs lost all 3 of those games. So we are looking at his record being 7-5. They are lucky, folks!