Home Baseball Piscotty’s double leads Cardinals to win!

Piscotty’s double leads Cardinals to win!

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In a week where not much went had gone right for the St. Louis Cardinals, it was the moment that needed to happen.

A clutch hit late in the game that would wind up winning the game for St. Louis.

Rookie Stephen Piscotty hit a one out double in the eighth inning, scoring two runs and giving the Cardinals a 4-3 lead, which was the final score. It gave the Cardinals their second win over the past six games, and lowered the magic number down to 20.

The starting pitchers for the afternoon were Carlos Martinez (13-7, 3.04), and for the Cubs, veteran Jon Lester (9-10, 3.59).

In the top of the first inning, Anthony Rizzo put the Cubs on the board when he doubled to score Chris Coghlan as Rizzo advanced to third base on an off throw. A ground rule double by Thomas La Stella scored Rizzo to give Chicago an early 2-0 lead.

St. Louis got on the board in the bottom half of the first when Jason Heyward singled home Matt Carpenter to cut the Cubs lead to one run. Chicago was able to gain another run in the second inning, thanks to a Dexter Fowler singled, which scored Lester, who earlier garnered only his second hit all season long.

On the mound, while his pitch count was high and three runs were scored through the first three innings, Martinez gave the best performance by a Cardinals’ starting pitcher since Jaime Garcia in Saturday’s win against the rival Pirates. Despite allowing 10 hits, he was able to rebound and keep Chicago from breaking the game wide open as they had twice before in the series. His final line for the game: 5.0 IP, 10 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 Ks.

The game headed to the eighth inning with the Cardinals still trailing 3-1.

It began with Pedro Strop pitching for Chicago. Mark Reynolds was issued a walk, and Greg Garcia singled, as Pete Kozma ran for Reynolds. Carpenter singled, scoring Kozma to make it a 3-2 game. Later in the inning, with two on and Peter Bourjos pinch running for Garcia, Piscotty hit a double deep to center field that scored two runners, giving the Cardinals the 4-3 lead and sending the crowd at Busch Stadium in a frenzy.

Trevor Rosenthal entered the game to pitch the ninth, and notched his 43rd save of the year, with Jonathan Broxton getting the win, as St. Louis won their 50th home game of the season, improving to 88-51.

Starting Thursday, St. Louis begins a series with the Cincinnati Reds, with Garcia getting the first start in the series.

 

 

(Photo by Jeff Curry/Getty Images)

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