Rizzo's walkoff leads Cubs to 10th straight victory

by Katrina Branson - Correspondent - Fri Aug 12 00:16:27 GMT-05:00 2016

CHICAGO - Cubs slugger Anthony Rizzo took a walk in the bottom of the 11th inning with two outs and bases loaded to take the 4-3 win over the Cardinals for their 10th consecutive win.

The Chicago Cubs headed into Thursday evening’s game starting a four-game set against the Cardinals having won nine games straight, while holding the best record in the major leagues. The Cardinals scored early as they started the first inning with three consecutive two-out hits to take the lead 1-0. The Cubs remained quiet at the plate until the 4th inning, when Anthony Rizzo hit a triple, but the Cubs left him stranded as the Cardinals still led 1-0 going into the 5th inning.

The Cubs threatened again in the 6th inning, but Carlos Martinez was able to get the Cardinals out of the jam once again. The Cardinals were able to extend their lead in the 6th inning as Brandon Moss smoked the ball out of Wrigley field to put the score at 2-0. Kris Bryant and Rizzo led off the bottom of the 6th with back to back singles.

Outfielder Chris Coghlan became the man of the hour as he stepped in the box and asked for time, but wasn’t granted it. He swung his bat with an emergency hack earning a base hit and scoring Rizzo and Bryant, tying the game at 2. The Cubs took the lead on a two-out bunt by David Ross, scoring Heyward putting the score at 3-2. Martinez wasn’t celebrating after the inning finally came to an end, taking his anger out on a Gatorade cooler.

The happiness was short lived as Grichuk homered to left in the 7th to tie the game at three. Carpenter tried to score, but was thrown out at the plate by the relay from the outfield. Justin Grimm came into the ball game in the 8th inning to get the Cubs out of the inning safely with the score still tied at three. Addison Russell hit a double in the 8th inning, but the Cubs were unable to plate him as the game went into the 9th still tied.

Aroldis Chapman entered the game and with the help of Javier Baez was easily able to get out of the 9th inning on only three pitches. Montgomery got the Cubs out of the 10th inning with the game still tied at three. Bryant hit an infield single to the first baseman, as he beat Carpenter to first on a head-first slide, but the Cubs left him stranded as the game goes went to the 11th inning. Mike Montgomery got the Cubs out of the jam in the 11th inning.

Willson Contreras had a single and Jorge Soler reached on an infield single as the Cubs have two on with no outs in the 11th inning. Then, Fowler reached on base via a walk as the Cubs had the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th inning with one out. Bryant struck out on three pitches but Anthony Rizzo took ball four as the Cubs won the game 4-3 in walk-off fashion for their tenth consecutive win.

The Cubs will play game two of the four-game set against the Cardinals on Friday night as Jake Arrieta will face off against Adam Wainwright on the pitcher’s mound.