Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo delivered a two-run, walk-off homer off Lee’s Summit native Trevor Rosenthal in the bottom of the 10th inning lifting Chicago to a 4-2 win, Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field. The loss, combined with Cincinnati’s 10th win in a row, drops the Cardinals 7.5 games out of first place.
The Cardinals, who entered with play on Sunday with the best batting average against lefties in the NL, managed just four hits off Cubs starter Paul Malholm as he allowed just one run in 6.2 innings.
With the Cardinals down 2-1 in the eighth, Carlos Beltran, who is hitting just .188 in July, tied the game with an opposite field homer. It was just Beltran’s third this month.
Adam Wainwright was fortunate to get out of the first two innings with just a 2-0 deficit. Wainwright allowed six of the first nine Cub hitters to reach base, but settled in after that, retiring 12 of his final 14 batters. Beltran’s homer let Waino off the hook for what would have been his first career loss at Wrigley. He is 5-0 in 13 games at the Friendly Confines.
In the bottom of the 10th, Rosenthal gave up a single to Starlin Castro, before Rizzo connected for his seventh homer. The Cubs are 17-10 since they called Rizzo and they have won 12 of their last 15 games.
