Recap: Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis
Sports Network | September 19, 2008
Chicago, IL (Sports Network) - Adam Kennedy belted a grand slam and drove in five runs as Chicago routed St. Louis, 12-6, in the opener of a three-game series at Wrigley Field.
Kennedy finished 4-for-5 and also scored three runs for the Cardinals, who have won two straight games after dropping the previous seven. Ryan Ludwick was 2-for-2 and also homered for St. Louis.
Adam Wainwright (10-3) allowed two runs on four hits in five innings to pick up the win.
Casey McGehee drove in a pair of runs for the Cubs, who still have a more than comfortable lead in the NL central. Chicago's magic number for clinching their second straight division crown remained at two. Daryle Ward, Kosuke Fukudome and Felix Pie added an RBI apiece.
Carlos Zambrano (14-6), coming off the first no-hitter by a Cubs pitcher in 36 years, was touched for eight runs on six hits in just 1 2/3 innings.
The Cards jumped all over Zambrano with five runs in the first. Skip Schumaker led off the game with a double to left and Ludwick followed with a single before Albert Pujols got St. Louis on the board with a run-scoring single. Felipe Lopez followed by drawing a walk and, after Troy Glaus flied out, Kennedy jumped all over a first pitch fastball and drove it over the wall in left for his second career grand slam.
The Cardinals kept the pressure on in the second and added three more runs. With runners on the corners and two down, Zambrano uncorked a wild pitch, enabling Jason LaRue to score. Lopez then followed with a run-scoring single. After Glaus walked, Cubs manager Lou Piniella had seen enough of Zambrano and went to Sean Marshall, but Kennedy greeted the reliever with an RBI single up the middle to make it an 8-0 game.
St. Louis added another insurance run in the fourth when Kennedy slapped a two-out single off Angel Guzman and Aaron Miles followed with an RBI double.
The Cubs finally found the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth with a pair of runs. Micah Hoffpauir got on with a one-out single, moved to second on Ronny Cedeno's walk and came around to score on Ward's RBI double to right. McGehee followed with an RBI grounder and Chicago trailed 11-2.
Kennedy continued his career-day in the sixth ripping a one-out double off Kevin Hart before coming around to score on pinch hitter Brian Barden's single up the middle.
The Cubs added two meaningless runs in the eighth off Kelvin Jimenez. Fukudome had an RBI single before Jimenez threw two consecutive wild pitches, enabling Mike Fontenot to score.
A McGehee RBI ground out and Pie's RBI double in the ninth accounted for the final margin.
Last Sunday versus Houston at Milwaukee's Miller Park, Zambrano became the first Cub pitcher to throw a no-hitter since Milt Pappas did so versus San Diego on September 2, 1972. Zambrano allowed just two base runners -- one on a walk and one on a hit batter -- and fanned 10. The game was moved to Milwaukee because of the effects of Hurricane Ike on the Gulf Coast and Houston area... Kennedy's grand slam was just his second homer of the year and his first career homer against the Cubs.
