St. Louis takes game two from Chicago setting up rubber match on Mother’s Day

After losing game one of their big weekend series with the Cubs, the Cardinals won game two 5-3.  Game three on Sunday will now determine how many games ahead of Chicago they will be when the Cubs leave town.

Carlos Martinez (3-3, 3.88, 1.29 WHIP) is not your ordinary Major League pitcher.  When he takes the mound he becomes a complete baseball player who is playing a game he loves.  On Saturday afternoon in front of a record crowd, he pitched and batted the St. Louis Cardinals to a needed victory over the rival Chicago Cubs.

On the mound, Martinez went 6 2/3 innings, striking out 7 while holding the Cubs to 5 hits.  He was cruising into the seventh before rookie Ian Happ (.333, 1 HR, 2 RBI) blasted a two run home run for his first career hit.  The Cardinal bullpen did the rest with Matt Bowman (1-1, 3.24, 0.90 WHIP) finishing the seventh, Trevor Rosenthal (1-1, 2.03, 0.98 WHIP) securing the eighth and Seung Whan Oh (1-1, 2.89, 1.39 WHIP) pitching the ninth for his tenth save.

The Cubs broke out on top on a Jon Lester RBI double to deep center field in the top of the second inning.  St. Louis tied the score at 1-1 in the third when Carlos Martinez bunted for a single driving Tommy Pham (.387, 3 HR, 8 RBI) home from third.

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The Cards take the Lead

The Cards took the lead for good by plating two runs in the fourth off Jon Lester (1-2, 3.45, 1.40 WHIP).  Leading off the inning, Jedd Gyorko (.337, 7 HR, 18 RBI) homered to left center field to make it 2-1.  After a Yadier Molina (.261, 1 HR, 11 RBI) single, a stolen base and a sacrifice, Tommy Pham singled to center driving in Molina from third to make it 3-1.

In the top of the fifth with one out Kyle Schwarber (.183, 5 HR, 14 RBI) walked and reached third when Matt Carpenter (.250, 7 HR, 22 RBI) booted a potential double play ball hit by Ian Happ.  With Anthony Rizzo (.216, 6 HR, 19 RBI) at the plate and the tying runs on base, controversy ensued.  When Rizzo bounced back to the mound, Martinez whirled and underhanded a throw to Aledmys Diaz (.255, 5 HR, 14 RBI) at second base.  Even though it appeared Diaz had no chance to complete the double play, Ian Happ was called for slide interference and both he and Rizzo were called out.  Because of the call Kyle Schwarber did not score from third.

Joe Maddon decided to take Lester out of the game in the bottom of the sixth when after two strikeouts to open the inning he walked Greg Garcia. Tommy Pham greeted Pedro Strop (0-2, 4.50, 1.33 WHIP) with a line drive double to right scoring Garcia from first.  Magneuris Sierra (.400, 0 HR, 1 RBI) followed with a single to center, scoring Pham and putting the Cardinals in front 5-1.  The Happ two run homer in the seventh concluded the scoring making the final score 5-3 St. Louis.

Next: Astros threaten to make mockery of AL West

The Sunday Showdown

Now that the Cardinals have earned a split in the first two games of the series, the only question is how much room will they have between themselves and the Cubs on Monday.  A Mother’s Day victory will extend their lead over Chicago to 3.5 games while a loss will cut it to 1.5.  As is so often said, a head to head game is a two game swing.  The next nine times the Cardinals and the Cubs square off will be at Wrigley Field so Sunday is a big game for St. Louis.  Two struggling veterans take the hill with Jake Arrieta (4-2, 5.35, 1.47 WHIP) and Adam Wainwright (2-3, 6.37, 1.87 WHIP) matching up at 1:15 in St. Louis.