Cardinals fall in 11 innings

Jim Edmonds stuck it to his former team by hitting two home runs.  Edmonds second homer of the day tied the game at 2-2, then the Cubs when in the 11th inning off reliever Ryan Franklin.

Henry Blanco lined a single past Cesar Izturis with the bases loaded for the game winner with no outs.  After Derek Lee reached base to lead off the 11th, Aramis Ramirez singled and the Cards elected to walk Kosuke Fukodome to leave a force at any base, before Blanco’s game winner.

The Cardinals had chances, wasting another good performance by starter Braden Looper who hurts himself by giving up the long ball.  Jim Edmonds homered in the 2nd inning and as he watched the ball go to right, he flipped his bat towards the Cards’ dugout sending a message to Tony LaRussa.

Joe Mather, hitting in the lead off spot, hit a home run in the 3rd inning to tie the game and the Cardinals took a 2-1 lead after Skip Schumaker and Mather singled to lead off the sixth.  Schumaker and Mather moved up on a throw to third and Schumaker scored on a ground out, but the Cardinals blew a big opportunity to blow the game open.  With the bases loaded, Troy Glaus (0 for 29 against Chicago) flew out to left field and Alfonso Soriano threw Mather out trying to score.

The inning before that, Looper failed to get a bunt down on a suicide squeeze and Cesar Izturis was easily tagged out at the plate.  Looper, for the second game in a row against the Cubs goes seven innings, but allows two solo home runs.  Looper has given up 19 home runs on the year.

The Cardinals still have a chance to take the series, but fall seven games behind the Cubs who will send Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster in the other two games in this series.  This is almost a must win series, or the focus could shift solely to fighting for the wild card.