Coverage of tonight's Cards and Cubs game can be heard on Newstalk 97.3 WTIM beginning at 6:40pm.
St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Junior Lake tallied six RBI, Emilio
Bonifacio scored five runs and the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals,
17-5, in the opener of a four-game set.
Lake finished 3-for-6 with a three-run homer and a pair of doubles, while
Bonifacio posted four hits for Chicago, which pounded out 20 hits to snap a
three-game losing skid.
"I think we worked some at-bats and got some pitches that we could handle,"
Cubs manager Rick Renteria said. "It was a good game for us."
Mike Olt hit a two-run shot and scored twice, while Travis Wood (3-4) allowed
five runs -- four earned -- on five hits and three walks over six frames in
the triumph.
Tyler Lyons (0-3) gave up nine runs on nine hits and a walk over four innings
for St. Louis, which has dropped three of its last four games.
"Looked like just getting the ball over the middle of the plate," Cardinals
manager Mike Matheny said of Lyons' start.
The Cubs raced out to a 7-0 lead after plating four runs in the first and
three more in the second.
Bonifacio led off the game with a double, advanced to third on Lake's
groundout and scored on a passed ball. Anthony Rizzo reached with a single and
came home on Starlin Castro's triple down the right-field line. Olt then sent
an opposite-field drive into the seats in right for a 4-0 Cubs advantage.
In the second, Wood and Bonifacio tallied base hits before Lake crushed a
three-run shot to left for a 7-0 spread.
The Cardinals got a pair of runs back in the home half on Mark Ellis' two-out,
two-run single, but Chicago answered back with two more in the fourth.
Darwin Barney began the inning with a single and Bonifacio worked a one-out
walk before Lake doubled into right-center to plate Barney. Bonifacio scored
when Rizzo reached on a fielder's choice to make it 9-2.
St. Louis pushed across a trio of runs in the fifth before Chicago countered
with two in the top of the sixth.
Greg Garcia and Jhonny Peralta were each hit by a pitch around a Matt
Carpenter fly out and Garcia scored on Matt Holliday's double into right.
Allen Craig's RBI groundout brought home Peralta and Yadier Molina's base hit
plated Holliday.
Rizzo's sacrifice fly and Castro's RBI double in the sixth made it 11-5.
Chicago added six runs in the ninth. Lake had a two-run double, Nate
Schierholtz tallied a sacrifice fly, Rizzo posted an RBI groundout and Barney
and Castro each added an RBI single.
Game Notes
Castro went 3-for-6 with three RBI ... Barney had three hits to go with two
runs scored and an RBI ... Chicago was 7-for-16 with runners in scoring
position, while St. Louis finished 3-for-7 with RISP.