Cubs Rally to Beat Cardinals

Major League Baseball got back underway Thursday night after three days off for the All-Star break. There was only one game on the schedule. The Chicago Cubs took on the St. Louis Cardinals in front of 41,000 people at the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. There has been quite a bit of turmoil with the Cardinals recently. They fired Mike Matheny. He had been their manager for the past seven seasons. It is a huge understatement to say that the Cardinals have underachieved this season. They now are only a single game over .500 after falling to the Cubs by a score of 9-6.

The usually dependable Carlos Martinez started the game for the Cardinals. However, he did not pitch as well as he usually does. He surrendered five earned runs and seven hits during five innings of work. He also gave up a home run. He was never able to get into a good rhythm all evening. Martinez took the loss and saw his record fall to 6-6 on the season. Kyle Hendricks was the starting pitcher for the Cubs. He also did not have a stellar performance. He was only able to go 4.2 innings and gave up three earned runs and nine hits along he way. He wound up not getting a decision.

Things started well for the Cardinals in this game. They were able to get out to a 3-1 lead. However, everything fell apart in the bottom of the fifth inning. That is when the Cubs exploded for five runs. They would never surrender the lead for the rest of the game. The Cubs have been playing better the deeper they get into the season. They were chosen as one of the favorite clubs to represent the National League in the World Series by many people in the media. They got off to a very slow start in April. They are finally playing the way that many experts thought they would.

The Cubs were not able to get Manny Machado from the Baltimore Orioles in a trade. He instead was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. There are still some deals that the Cubs can make before the non-waiver trade deadline on July 31. It remains to be seen what positions that Cubs general manager Theo Epstein will try to improve for the second half of the season. There is a lot of pressure on the Cubs to win it all.