St. Louis Cardinals Postgame Recap (April 8)

Well, so much for a 162-0 regular season.

Seriously, the St. Louis Cardinals couldn’t buy much luck Wednesday during the final game of the season-opening series with the Chicago Cubs.

Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta and relievers held the Cardinals to just three hits in a 2-0 shutout before a smaller midweek crowd at the ballpark that bears a resemblance to Wrigley Field.

You know it’s a bad day when your pitcher, Lance Lynn, is one of the players with a hit. For the record, Matt Holliday and Jhonny Peralta were the others.

Here are some of the highlights from Wednesday’s game and observations through two contests:

*The loss spoiled a fantastic performance by Lynn, who struck out nine batters over six innings. Kevin Siegrist and Matt Belisle each threw one inning and struck out one batter, but the Cardinals couldn’t warm up at the plate.

*The big hitters in the lineup, Matt Adams, Yadier Molina and Kolten Wong, are all hitless through two games this year. Of course, it’s not time to panic, but you have to wonder where the hits are going to be. Chalk Wednesday up to a rock-solid performance by Arrieta, who looked a lot smoother on the mound than highly-touted free-agent pickup Jon Lester did on Sunday.

*St. Louis stranded 12 runners on the basepaths during the game. Adams wasn’t very good at clearing his plate, as he left three runners aboard.

Don’t get me wrong. This is not panic time. The Cubs needed to do something to solve Sunday’s abysmal performance, and they certainly did.

The Cardinals are off on Thursday before they travel to Great American Ballpark for a three-game series with the Cincinnati Reds.