St. Louis Cardinals: Three Things We Learned From the Cubs Series

Wednesday afternoon, the St. Louis Cardinals dropped their second straight game to the Chicago Cubs, falling in the series 2-1. Though this isn’t the outcome fans wanted, we learned some things that we may not have known before.

The Chicago Cubs topped the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday by a score of 9-8. The decisive third game gave the Cubs the series win and put them eight games ahead of St. Louis in the National League Central standings.

In game one of the series, the Cardinals defeated the Cubs 4-3 after Randal Grichuk hit a walk-off home run. In the second game the Cubs routed St. Louis 12-3, knocking Michael Wacha out of the game in the fourth inning.

In the third and final game, the Cardinals fell behind 6-1 in the second inning, only to come back from the deficit to make it a 6-4 game. Kris Bryant quickly widened the gap by hitting a home run over the bullpen in left field to make it a 9-4 game. In the sixth and seventh inning, Matt Holliday and Matt Adams homered, driving in four runs total and pulling the game within one run.

The Cardinals had a promising chance to tie or win the game in the ninth inning, as Stephen Piscotty and Matt Adams reached base with no outs. However, Hector Rondon shut down the Cardinals with three consecutive outs and the comeback chance ended there.

Though the Cubs took the series over the Cardinals at home, there were some glaring learning points for fans to take away from the matchup. Whether good or bad, knowing more about yourself or your opponent is something that helps in the game of baseball, and this series told us a lot about the two rivals.

Next: Grichuk and Adams on the rise