Cubs run into late outs, lose to Cardinals 4-3

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

PIRATES 3, DODGERS 2 Aramis Ramirez hit a tiebreaking double in the eighth inning, Andrew McCutchen doubled home two runs, and visiting Pittsburgh ended a four-game skid with a victory over Los Angeles.

Losing two of three games against the Chicago Cubs is always going to be something of a disappointment.

Should Anthony Rizzo have tried to score on that short-to-medium fly ball to right field by Addison Russell in the eighth inning?

Harvey looks fully healthy, but was pulled for Hansel Robles (4-3) after five scoreless innings. The Pirates are a game ahead of the Cubs, just four games behind the Cardinals.

CHICAGO (AP) – The odds of the Cubs overtaking first-place St. Louis in the NL Central were diminished Sunday, but Chicago’s confidence wasn’t.

Cardinals Carlos Martinez (14-7/3.01 ERA) was on the mound to face the Cubs. The Pirates will play their next four games in Denver against the Colorado Rockies Monday through Thursday.

Molina suffered a sprained thumb in Sunday’s win over the Chicago Cubs and will go for an MRI to determine any further damage.

Also remember that in last year’s National League Championship Series, the Cardinals and San Francisco Giants split the first two games, with Molina suffering a strained oblique in the second. Then, after hitting him, Rodney slapped his chest, a common way players show that they accept blame, as if to say, “my bad”.

St. Louis became the first team to clinch a postseason berth – its fifth straight – on Saturday when San Francisco lost. The Cubs entered the contest one game behind Pittsburgh for the top NL wild-card spot.

Jon Lester started this game quite poorly.

Jason Heyward, two time Golden Glove victor , displayed his strength of arm for an extraordinary double play against the Chicago Cubs.

“It hurts (gripping the bat) a little bit”, Molina said. I get it. There’s no way for me to sit here and even attempt to ameliorate your concerns.

The game involved some drama a day after Cubs manager Joe Maddon criticized Cardinals reliever Matt Belisle for hitting Anthony Rizzo with a pitch. “We’ll get the doctors to look at it and see”.

When Cubs closer Hector Rondon hit Greg Garcia in the ninth inning, he and Maddon were ejected.

When Starlin Castro singled to start the ninth inning, the right thing to do was pinch-run Berry for him.

Martinez held the Cubs to two runs on four hits through his 6 2/3 innings. But, they soon were quieted when Rookie Tommy Pham, (.272 BA) second in the order, was at the plate. Rosenthal took care of the Cubs with Montero swinging and strand two on the bags.

Rizzo’s two-run single cut the lead to 4-2 in the bottom of the third.

The Cardinals scored three runs in the first inning for their first lead of the series.

Brad Hand (4-7) gave up three runs, four hits and six walks in 4 2-3 innings. In the early innings, it seemed like it might be a Star Wars: Episode I “can’t help for there to be a letdown after so much build-up” feel.

The Cubs bullpen did a good job Sunday. Lester got his third out with Kolten Wong looking; but, not before the Cardinals took the lead, 3-0. He’s 3 for 11 against St. Louis and 0 for 82 against all other teams. It was only the second time Holliday had appeared in a game since July 29th after missing 44 games due to injury. It was his fifth home run of the season and fourth in his last six games. With two on and two outs in the eighth, Skip Schumaker hit a looping fly ball down the left field line.