Ian Happ hit two homers, and pinch hitter and former teammate Jon Jay drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh with a single and the Chicago Cubs beat the Cardinals 7-6 on Sunday night to complete a three-game sweep.
Each time the Cardinals had early leads this weekend and each time Chicago battled back.
The Cardinals took at 4-1 lead in the fourth inning thanks to a three-run homer by Stephen Piscotty off Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks, but Chicago answered with five in the bottom half off against Michael Wacha for a 6-4 lead. Â The Cardinals tied it with two in the sixth against Hector Rondon.
Jay broke a 6-6 tie with his two-out single off Matt Bowman (1-2) in the seventh.
“Two weeks of having multiple games that we typically would put away and for whatever reason, they’re just hard to finish now. They’re always hard to finish here,” said Mike Matheny after the game.
The Cardinals had leads of 4-1 on Sunday, 3-1 on Saturday and 2-1 on Friday before eventually losing all three games. Â St. Louis drops to 26-28, 2.5 games behind Milwaukee in the division, starting a four-game series at Cincinnati. Â The Cardinals are up 1.5 games on the Reds.
