Coverage of Game 2 between Cards and Cubs can be heard on Newstalk 97.3 WTIM beginning at 12:40pm.
St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Welington Castillo crushed a three-run
homer in the 11th inning to lift the Chicago Cubs to a 6-3 win over the St.
Louis Cardinals in the opener of a three-game series at Busch Stadium.
Nate Schierholtz opened the 11th with a double, his fourth hit of the game.
After a sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk by Trevor Rosenthal (0-1), Ryan
Kalish popped up a safety squeeze that was caught by catcher Yadier Molina.
Castillo followed by launching his second home run of the season to left-
center field.
"I think he [Wellington] just wanted to get in there and do his job," said
Cubs manager Rick Renteria. "He got a good pitch to handle and drove it out of
the ballpark."
The Cardinals, who erased a 3-1 deficit in the ninth against Jose Veras,
couldn't rally a second time. Hector Rondon worked around a two-out walk to
record his first career save. Justin Grimm (1-0) rebounded from consecutive
four-pitch walks to preserve the 3-3 tie in the 10th.
"They showed a lot of fight to get us back into the game. It's a shame we
couldn't finish it," said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny.
Veras gave up a leadoff single to Molina and grazed Allen Craig with a pitch.
The play was upheld by a video review.
After a sac bunt advanced the runners, Molina raced home on a passed ball.
Veras then hit another batter and issued a walk to loaded the bases before the
Cardinals tied the game on Matt Carpenter's sac fly to right field.
Matt Adams doubled to lead off the second and scored on Molina's single to
right field. Schierholtz nearly made a diving catch on the play.
The Cubs finally scored a run for Chicago starter Jeff Samardzija,
capitalizing on an error. Chicago had been shut out in each of Samardzija's
first two outings this season.
Anthony Rizzo reached on second baseman Kolten Wong's fielding blunder to
open the seventh, and St. Louis starter Joe Kelly gave up consecutive singles
to Schierholtz and Ryan Sweeney that produced the tying run.
The Cubs then tried to pull off a double steal with reliever Carlos Martinez
on the mound, but Schierholtz was thrown out at third base. Martinez
intentionally walked Kalish after Starlin Castro popped out and induced an
inning-ending groundout by Castillo.
Chicago did move ahead in the eighth, as Rizzo lofted a sac fly and
Schierholtz followed with an RBI single.
Game Notes
The Cardinals have lost back-to-back games for the first time this season
...Samardzija allowed six hits and struck out four over seven innings ...
Kelly also gave up six hits in his six-inning outing.