Cardinals 1st Major League Baseball team to clinch playoff spot this season

Catcher Yadier Molina will have an MRI scan taken of his left thumb and wrist to determine the extent of an injury sustained while making a game-saving tag.

St. Louis Cardinals’ Stephen Piscotty (55) celebrates with teammate…

The third hit batter got the Cardinals mad at the Cubs. Martinez is 1-0 with a 5.04 ERA in 13 games (three starts) against the Cubs. The Cubs had not won three games in a series against the Pirates since sweeping them in Pittsburgh from September 7-9, 2012.

St. Louis Cardinals’ Matt Carpenter celebrates with teammates in…

Addison Russell’s fly ball in the eighth inning Sunday might be the most important play in baseball so far this year. He was upset when Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo was hit with a pitch by Matt Belisle in Chicago’s 8-3 win. Starlin Castro, who had six RBIs on Friday, and Tommy La Stella also drove in runs for Chicago.

The Cardinals lead the NL Central by 4 1/2 games over Pittsburgh, which played later at Dodger Stadium.

“You could continue to use different ways to describe it”, manager Joe Maddon said. As much as they are a team fun to mock at times, they’re still the lovable losers playing baseball the right way.

Manager Mike Matheny delivered a “quick talk” to his players to recognize their franchise-record fifth straight trip to the postseason.

Now they’ve proved it to the Cardinals, as well. Right fielder Jason Heyward had the assist, throwing out Rizzo on the no-out, bases-loaded fly for a double play.

“That was a base hit the moment it left the bat”, Maddon said. I get it. There’s no way for me to sit here and even attempt to ameliorate your concerns. He threw out Cubs speedster Quintin Berry, keeping him from stealing second to put the tying run in scoring position. He struck out Jorge Soler swinging and rookie Kyle Schwarber grounded out to close the game, handing Martinez his 14 win, Lester his eleventh loss and “Rosie” gets his 46 save, his career high.

Lester and the Cubs were not able to recover from two Cardinals home runs and three runs in the first inning and could not get what they wanted.

Kendrys Morales hit three solo home runs plus a triple to set a club record for total bases in a game as the Kansas City Royals overpowered the Detroit Tigers. Miguel Montero then struck out to end the inning.

Martinez retired 11 straight at one point and finished with six strikeouts. In his third, he gave up the two earned runs scored against him.

Todd Frazier hit his 35th home run of the season in the sixth off Brewers starter Taylor Jungmann, who allowed six runs, eight hits and a walk in five-plus innings.

ORIOLES 2, RAYS 1 Wei-Yin Chen pitched seven effective innings, Adam Jones drove in two runs and visiting Baltimore beat Tampa Bay. He’s 3 for 11 against St. Louis and 0 for 82 against all other teams.

Blue Jays SS Troy Tulowitzki will miss the rest of the regular season due to a small crack in his left shoulder, he told reporters on Saturday. It was his fifth home run of the season and fourth in his last six games.

“If I make two better pitches, maybe it’s different”, Lester said. Taken by the Cubs as the 4th pick in the 1st round of the 2014 amateur draft, the 22 year-old catcher / corner outfielder started 2015 splitting time with the Iowa Cubs and the Double-A Tennessee Smokies.

Molina whipped off his mitt as Rizzo had collided with his wrist, but he remained in the game after being tended to by the team’s athletic trainer.