Jon Lester beat John Lackey once on Monday night. Lester singled on the infield as the ball deflected off of Lackey and rolled far enough away to where a play couldn’t be made. It was Lester’s first major league hit, snapping an 0-for-66 streak.
Lackey and Lester shared a laughed at the end of the inning, but Lackey got the last laugh as he won the game in a 6-0 final, keeping a six game lead over Pittsburgh.
Lackey threw seven scoreless innings, as he struck out four and gave up six hits while walking one. He left the game with a 2-0 lead.
Neither team has been scoring much. The Cubs have gone 13 of their last 16 games with two or fewer runs. The Cardinals scored more than three runs for the first time since June 28.
In fact, the Cardinals were getting no-hit through six plus innings. Jhonny Peralta ended that with a hot smash down to Kris Bryant at third that couldn’t be handled, ending Lester’s streak of 18 batters retired.
Bryan, a first-time All Star, then threw one into right field on a Jason Heyward grounder that went into right field. Yadier Molina’s sac fly, and Kolten Wong’s RBI single gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
The game was delayed by rain for more than an hour in the middle of the eighth inning.
The Cardinals tacked on four more runs in the ninth against Edwin Jackson on a sac fly from Mark Reynolds, a two-run double from Randal Grichuk and a single from Peter Bourjas.