Bye Bye Birdie: Cubs Beat Cards, Clinch NLDS

They held a 3-2 series lead over the eventual World Series champion Florida Marlins, but the infamous Steve Bartman incident shifted momentum in favor of the Marlins and helped them win Game 6 before they went on to win Game 7 too.

Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo and Kyle Schwarber did the heavy lifting Tuesday as each came up with huge home runs and the bullpen did the rest to give their their fans what so many have been dreaming about for so long.

The Chicago Cubs have been through a few of the toughest times of any franchise in sports, but it looks like this team can provide the franchise and its fans with something to cheer about. The Cubs used three home runs and eight pitchers to eliminate the St.Louis Cardinals, 6-4, in Game 4 of this best-of-five division series.

Jesse joined ESPN Chicago in September 2009 and covers the Chicago Cubs for ESPNChicago.com and ESPN Radio 1000.

This rule has been in place since 2003 All-Star Game and has been beneficial in motivating the players to do their best in the game. “We had an opportunity maybe to get back home and do things differently, but they took advantage of the opportunities they had”.

By finishing off the Cardinals Tuesday night at Wrigley Field, Maddon’s club has set itself up perfectly for the NLCS – either going east or west for the first two games of the series against the Mets or Dodgers, two teams pushed to the cross-country limit by their five-game NLDS.

The ball landed on top of the right-field video board.

The Cubs didn’t beat St. Louis so much as carpet-bomb the Cardinals with sustained home run shots.

The Cardinals struck first when Stephen Piscotty blasted a two-run homer to center field off Jason Hammel in the top of the first. When the Cubs split the first two games in St. Louis, assuring two games at Wrigley, fans started thinking about winning the series. “They also have a really good lineup”, Lackey said.

The collapse in the second wasted a fast start for St. Louis, which grabbed a 2-0 lead when Piscotty connected on Hammel’s fourth pitch of the game.

The latest was the loss of catcher Yadier Molina, who sat out Tuesday’s Game 4 due to weakness in an already injured thumb. Backup C Tony Cruz went 1-for-4 with an RBI double….

Since Russell will be out for the entire series, the Cubs will be able to replace him on the series 25-man roster, which has not yet been announced (I’d expect it out sometime Friday morning).

“I haven’t gotten any finalized conclusions from anybody yet”, manager Joe Maddon said. “He’s not going to play today, of course”.