Cardinals’ Molina headed for MRI on thumb

He hit a medium fly ball to Jason Heyward in right field.

The Cardinals and the Cubs split their six previous meetings at Wrigley Field this season.

The Chicago Cubs went into Sunday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals looking for a three-game sweep.

Molina was injured in the bottom of the eighth inning while making a tag at the plate.

INJURY NOTE: Molina will have a MRI on his left thumb today. “I just couldn’t grip it”. His 72 appearances this season are second in the National League to the 73 made by Cardinals reliever Kevin Siegrist.

Cubs manager Joe Maddon has been impressed with Castro’s attitude and play since the move.

“Earlier in the year, we were not able to hold on against these guys late”, Maddon said.

The Cubs are comfortably ahead of the Giants for the final wild-card spot.

Now they’ve proved it to the Cardinals, as well.

“Obviously, the ultimate goal is through them”, Cubs starter Jon Lester (10-11) said.

McHugh (17-7) limited Oakland to one run on four hits and two walks while notching eight strikeouts. Fowler and Chris Coghlan walked.

Lester went six innings, and gave up four runs on six hits. He’s 3 for 11 against St. Louis and 0 for 82 against all other teams.

The teams are 2½ games behind Houston for the second wild card.

Kris Medlen (5-1) allowed three unearned runs and five hits in five innings.

Chen earned his 10th win by giving up one run and striking out seven over seven innings.

“We’ve evolving”, center fielder Dexter Fowler said.

In St. Petersburg, Florida, Wei-yin pitched seven effective innings and Adam Jones drove in two runs. Called up in 2014 by the Cubs for 55 games, he showed he needed work as a middle infielder (fielding % of.957 and.964 at second and short respectively), and he struggled against major league pitching over that promotion.

Teheran’s bid was spoiled by Freddy Galvis’ leadoff single in the seventh. After going almost the entire season with three pick-off attempts (two of them for errors), Lester picked off his second man in as many starts when he got Peralta in the top of the third.

Seattle Mariners right-hander Felix Hernandez allowed two runs in 5-2/3 innings in a 9-2 victory over the Texas Rangers.

Brian McCann added a two-run homer in the sixth. They have also won 20 of their last 26 home games. Tony Cruz is on the money to 2B Wong to deny Berry a steal to advance in a scoring position.

Albert Pujols had two hits and two RBIs in the nightcap, and Garrett Richards was one out away from his second complete game this season.

Had the Mets’ hand not been forced with Matt Harvey last night, you have to wonder how that game would have turned out. We did a good job of pressuring them and proving to ourselves we can give them a good run and maybe beat them [in October.].

ROYALS 10, TIGERS 3 Kendrys Morales hit three home runs and a triple, setting a team record with 15 total bases as visiting Kansas City beat Detroit to avoid a three-game sweep. Valencia had a solo shot in the fourth inning.

In Denver, Tom Murphy had an RBI single and a home run.