Luke Weaver gave up six runs in the first two innings and the Cardinals went on to lose 8-5 to the Cubs in Chicago. Harrison Bader scored on a Jon Lester wild pitch in the first for St. Louis before Chicago scored the game’s next eight runs. Jedd Gyorko had two of the Cardinals’ five hits in defeat.
The Cardinals loaded the bases in the seventh off Chicago’s bullpen with nobody out and managed to score four runs, but the 8-1 was too big to dig out from. St. Louis finished the game with just five hits.
Weaver says he threw well, he was just off a hair.
Cardinals starter Luke Weaver says he felt like he pitched better than the results.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny says they battled after falling way behind, but couldn’t sweep their road trip.
>>Cardinals Call Up O’Neill From Triple-A
Tyler O’Neill is now in the big leagues. The Cardinals called up the 22-year-old outfielder from Triple-A Memphis before yesterday’s game in Chicago. He struck out in the fifth inning as a pinch-hitter in his major league debut. O’Neill was hitting .388 with six home runs and 18 RBI in just 12 games with the Redbirds.
The Cardinals are being cautious with Tommy Pham. He passed all of his tests on his sore right groin, but Mike Matheny held him out of the lineup to buy some extra time for his starting center fielder, especially with temperatures in the upper 40s on Thursday at Wrigley Field.
>>Cardinals Host Reds Tonight
The Cardinals are at home tonight to open a three-game series with the Reds. Michael Wacha opposes Cincinnati’s Brandon Finnegan. The Cards are second in the NL Central at 10-and-8, a game-and-a-half behind the Pirates. Cincy is an MLB-worst 3-and-15 and fired manager Bryan Price.