Coverage of today's Cards and Cubs game can be heard on Newstalk 97.3 WTIM beginning at 11:30pm.

Chicago,  IL  (SportsNetwork.com) -  Anthony  Rizzo  finished with  two  hits, 
including  a solo homer, and drove in three to fuel Chicago's 6-5 victory over 
St. Louis in the opener of a three-game series at Wrigley Field. 

"He's  made  a very  conscious effort  of trying to  control the strike zone," 
Cubs  manager  Rick  Renteria  said  of Rizzo,  who  upped  his  home  batting 
average  to .407  this season.  "He's  just trying to not  do too much. If  he 
puts  the barrel  on the ball with a  decent swing, he can hit the ball out of 
the ballpark." 

Welington  Castillo  hit three doubles and  knocked in two for the Cubs, while 
Ryan Sweeney contributed two hits and an RBI. 

Travis  Wood (2-3)  allowed six hits and  three runs -- two earned -- with six 
strikeouts over seven solid innings. Hector Rondon tossed a scoreless ninth to 
earn his second save. 

Jhonny  Peralta  slugged a  two-run shot  and accounted for  three RBI for the 
Cardinals, with Matt Carpenter scoring twice and knocking in a run in defeat. 

Adam Wainwright (5-2) was torched for six runs on 10 hits with four strikeouts 
and  a pair of walks over five full frames. The right-hander also suffered his 
first defeat on the north side after 17 games (12 starts). 

"I left a lot of balls in the middle of the plate," said Wainwright, whose 25- 
inning  scoreless string didn't last beyond Chicago's first turn at the plate. 
"I  did that last time I pitched against them, too, so I don't think there's a 
coincidence -- or I don't think there's a meaning behind it, it's just a weird 
coincidence." 

Justin  Grimm subbed  for Wood in the eighth, and got into trouble immediately 
after walking Carpenter and serving up a two-run shot to Peralta which reduced 
the Cardinals' deficit to 6-5. 

Matt  Holliday singled off Emilio Bonifacio's glove at second, and after Allen 
Craig  flied out, Brian Schlitter got the nod. He retired the next two batters 
to preserve the one-run margin. 

Rondon  backed that  up by  retiring St.  Louis  in order  in the  ninth on  a 
groundout, foul out and flyout. 

In  the home  first, Bonifacio singled, Luis Valbuena doubled and Rizzo's long 
single plated both. 

St.  Louis countered  in the third. Randal Grichuk struck a leadoff double but 
was  caught in  a rundown  on Mark  Ellis' grounder.  Ellis was  sacrificed to 
second then scored on Carpenter's base hit. Peralta followed with a double off 
the ivy in right center to score another and tie the game. 

Chicago fired back with three in the home third. With one down, Rizzo and Nate 
Schierholtz  walked  around a Starlin Castro  base hit which filled the sacks, 
then  Sweeney's grounder scored Rizzo ahead of Castillo's two-run double for a 
5-2 game. 

"With  all  due respect  to that team,  they're a great  ballclub, but we're a 
pretty good team, too," Rizzo said. "It's just about scoring runs when we have 
the opportunity to." 

Yadier  Molina doubled with one out in the fourth and later scored on Castro's 
throwing  error on a  Grichuk grounder to pull the Cards within two, but Rizzo 
reached  the  bleachers near the right-field  foul pole to start the bottom of 
the fifth and restore the Cubs' three-run edge. 

                                   Game Notes 

St.  Louis won  two of  three at  home against  Chicago in  the first  matchup 
between  the clubs  from April 11-13 ...  The Cubs beat the Cardinals for just 
the second time in the last nine meetings since last Aug. 17.