St. Louis Cardinals Yadier Molina chugs around third base as he scores from first base on a triple by Randal Grichuk in the second inning against the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on June 26, 2015. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI
Greg Garcia’s first career home run tied the game in the eighth and Jhonny Peralta’s RBI groundout in the 10th inning gave the St. Louis Cardinals a 3-2 win over the Chicago Cubs on Friday.
Peter Bourjos laced a leadoff double into the left-field corner off Justin Grimm to begin the 10th, then Kolten Wong grounded a pitch up the middle that hit off second base for an infield single.
Grimm (1-2) intentionally walked Matt Carpenter to load the bases before Peralta poked a soft grounder to Mike Baxter, who sailed his throw home as Bourjos slid in safely for the win.
“That was a nice finish,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “Just kind of kept playing the game.”
Seth Maness (2-0) picked up the victory for St. Louis, which has won four straight after sweeping the Marlins in south Florida earlier in the week.
“Overall real proud of the guys for their preparation all game long,” Matheny added.
The Cubs have lost three straight games.
“I believe in our guys. I believe our guys can play with these guys. I know their record is better than ours,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.
Cardinals hurler John Lackey and Cubs starter Jake Arrieta dueled throughout the early innings before Garcia’s home run off Pedro Strop in the eighth tied the game at 2-2.
St. Louis opened the scoring in the second on Randal Grichuk’s one-out triple that scored Yadier Molina, who reached on a walk.
The Cubs had runners on the corners in the fourth after Miguel Montero walked to begin the inning and Starlin Castro singled two battes later. Baxter stepped in and grounded a single into right that tied the game at 1-1.
Dexter Fowler led off the seventh with a double to center and moved to third on Anthony Rizzo’s groundout. Kris Bryant then gave the Cubs a brief lead with a sacrifice fly to center.
