John Brebbia pitched in 70 major league games before earning his first career win. When the wait was over Youth Logan Cooke Jersey , the individual accomplishment was an afterthought compared to the exhilaration of stopping his team’s archrival from earning its first sweep in nearly eight years at Busch Stadium.
Jack Flaherty and four relievers combined on a four-hitter, Matt Carpenter homered and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 5-0 on Sunday night.
Brebbia (1-1) worked around two hits in a scoreless sixth inning to earn his first major league win. Austin Gomber, Jordan Hicks and Bud Norris each pitched a hitless inning to finish the shutout. It ended the Cardinals’ season-high four-game losing streak and prevented the Cubs from getting their first series sweep in St. Louis since Sept. 13-15, 2010.
”It’s definitely nice to get a win for sure,” Brebbia said. ”What’s really nice is we got a win against the Cubs in the division, in what I think is a tight division right now so that’s probably the best part.”
Flaherty allowed just two hits while striking out seven in five innings, but he walked three and hit two batters and was pulled after throwing 97 pitches. He escaped a jam in the third inning when he struck out Kris Bryant with the bases loaded to keep the game scoreless.
”I was able to battle and execute when I needed to,” Flaherty said. ”I threw a lot of pitches in a short amount of time. I was hoping to go deeper, but that’s how it goes sometimes.”
Harrison Bader, Tommy Pham, and Marcell Ozuna each singled to open the sixth inning and load the bases. Pham’s single extended his hitting streak to a National League-best 11 games to chase Jose Quintana (6-5) from the game.
Bader scored the game’s first run when Yadier Molina grounded into a double play and Jedd Gyorko’s RBI single drove in Pham to make it 2-0.
Quintana was charged with the two runs and four hits in five-plus innings in his 200th career major league game.
”I felt pretty good,” Quintana said. ”I had all my stuff.”
Carpenter hit his 10th home run of the season and second of this series in the seventh inning off Brian Duensing to push the lead to 3-0.
Molina had an RBI double in the eighth, moved to third on Yairo Munoz’s infield single and scored on shortstop Addison Russell’s throwing error on the play.
Cubs shortstop Javier Baez left the game with a left elbow contusion after being hit by a pitch from Flaherty in the top of the third inning. Baez, who leads the team with 14 home runs Youth Armani Watts Jersey , was replaced by Russell.
”I’m fine. Just really sore,” Baez said. ”He got me really good. Right on the elbow.”
Chicago manager Joe Maddon was content with taking two of three in St. Louis.
He had reporters listen to a minute of the Meat Loaf song, ”Two out of Three Ain’t Bad,” before starting his press conference.
”We’ll take two out of three any day of the week, especially in this ball park,” Maddon said. ”We played well. We just didn’t get any hits tonight.”
BABY CUBS
The Cubs announced the signing of draft picks OF Brennen Davis (62nd overall) and RHP Paul Richan (78th overall) prior to Sunday’s game.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cubs: RHP Yu Darvish (right triceps tendinitis) will throw a simulated game on Tuesday at Wrigley Field.
Cardinals: RHP Greg Holland will travel with the team to Philadelphia after tossing a scoreless inning Saturday night on a rehabilitation assignment with Double-A Springfield.
UP NEXT
Cubs: RHP Tyler Chatwood (3-5, 4.12) opposes Dodgers RHP Kenta Maeda (4-4, 3.61) as Chicago opens a a three-game series against Los Angeles on Monday. Chatwood has issued a major league-leading 58 walks.
Cardinals: RHP Miles Mikolas (7-2, 2.43) starts the opener of a three-game series in Philadelphia as St. Louis starts a seven-game trip. He will be opposed by Phillies RHP Nick Pivetta (4-6, 4.25).
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Toronto’s Randal Grichuk put on a show for hundreds of friends and family that made the trek up to Houston to see him play just his third career game at a ballpark only about 35 miles from his hometown of Rosenberg, Texas.
Grichuk hit a two-run homer and made a huge defensive play, helping the Blue Jays beat the Houston Astros 6-3 on Monday.
”You can’t feel your body all game,” Grichuk said. ”You feel like you don’t need to stretch or get loose. It’s just as special for me as I know it is for my family.”
Toronto also got two homers from Curtis Granderson against Justin Verlander, but the night belonged to Grichuk in one special homecoming.
His soaring 471-foot home run Youth Kalen Ballage Jersey , which clanged off the light pole above the train tracks on the left-field wall, came against Will Harris and made it 6-3 with two out in the eighth.
Grichuk then reached over the short wall in right field to rob George Springer of a homer with two on and no outs in the ninth.
”Those are the plays you dream of that you don’t really get too often,” he said. ”But exactly what you hope for happened.”
Grichuk, who moved from center to right field in the bottom of the ninth, had his back to the wall when he reached between two fans with gloves to make the grab.
Springer stopped running and bent down in disbelief when he realized Grichuk had robbed him.
”Baseball can be pretty cruel,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. ”That’s a tough one. Right off the bat, I thought George got one. It carried and carried and carried and looked like he had to go pretty deep into the stands to get it.”
Granderson’s leadoff shot in the fifth tied it at 3. He connected again with two out in the seventh, belting an opposite-field drive off Verlander (9-3) into the second row in the Crawford Boxes in left field.
”I’m not a huge fan of the Crawford Boxes right now,” Verlander said. ”The one to right, I thought Curtis got pretty good. The one to left, I didn’t think he got that one very good. But it’s the ballpark we play in. It’s fair for all sides. I need to do a little bit better job.”
Verlander, who entered with a major league-best 1.60 ERA, allowed four runs and seven hits – both season highs – in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out six and walked two in his first loss since May 11.
Toronto’s J.A. Happ (10-3) yielded three runs and seven hits in six innings in his sixth straight win. Seung-hwan Oh worked the ninth for his second save.
Former Astro Teoscar Hernandez, who received his World Series ring in a pregame ceremony Youth Durham Smythe Jersey , had three hits and Justin Smoak drove in two runs as the Blue Jays won their third straight.
Alex Bregman homered in the Astros’ third loss in 18 games.
Hernandez singled with one out in the first before Yangervis Solarte drew a walk. Smoak’s two-out double lifted Toronto to a 2-0 lead.
Yuli Gurriel singled in Jose Altuve in the bottom half, and Bregman’s drive to the seats in left tied it at 2 with one out in the third.
Bregman also singled in Jake Marisnick in the fourth, but the Blue Jays tied it up again when Granderson sent the third pitch of the fifth inning into the stands in right for his eighth homer this season.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Astros: RHP Joe Smith (right elbow inflammation) felt good after throwing a bullpen on Sunday and will throw one more bullpen before likely beginning a rehabilitation assignment this weekend.
Blue Jays: RHP Aaron Sanchez (bruised finger on right hand) has less swelling and discomfort and will start playing catch in the next few days.
WHERE DID IT GO?
Granderson hit a foul pop in the first inning that got stuck in the park’s rafters. Catcher Max Stassi threw off his mask and looked up as he waited for it to come down, but it never did. Bregman soon trotted to the plate and started looking up to see where it was, too. Verlander held his glove over the top of his head for a few seconds, jokingly protecting himself if it happened to drop near him. Granderson and the trio of Astros then laughed, and Granderson got back in the box to resume his at-bat.
”I still have no idea what happened on that,” Granderson said. ”I’ve never hit a ball that high before.”
UP NEXT
Charlie Morton (9-1, 2.77 ERA) pitches for Houston on Tuesday, looking for his 10th win. Morton allowed just two hits and one unearned run in six innings of a 5-1 win over Tampa Bay in his last outing. The Blue Jays have yet to announce their Tuesday starter.
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