Cardinals 0 - 3 Cubs
Final
  for this game

Lake, Rizzo power Cubs past Cardinals

May 4, 2014 - 12:59 AM Chicago, IL (SportsNetwork.com) - Junior Lake's two-run homer propelled the Chicago Cubs to a 3-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the second installment of a three-game set.

Anthony Rizzo also homered and Starlin Castro had two hits with a double as the Cubs ensured its first series win after dropping their past 14.

Chicago's last series win came against the Reds on Sept. 9-11 of last season when it won the series, 2-1.

Brian Schlitter (1-0) earned his first major-league win after recording the final two outs of the sixth inning. Starter Jake Arrieta, who was activated from the disabled list prior to the game, made his first start of the season and spun 5 1/3 scoreless frames, surrendering only four hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.

Matt Adams had three hits and Jhonny Peralta supplied two hits for the Cardinals, who have dropped four of their last five games.

Michael Wacha (2-3) allowed two runs on five hits with six strikeouts across six innings.

"It's just frustrating really. I was able to get out of a jam there but then served one up to him and gave up two runs," said Wacha. "You just can't afford that in that situation."

With Castro on first and two outs in the sixth, Lake smoked a fastball over the wall in center field for a two-run homer to open the scoring.

"Junior with that home run was huge for us," said Rizzo on Lake's home run. "That was it, that was the deciding factor."

Rizzo led off the eighth and crushed the first pitch he saw from Randy Choate for a home run to give the Cubs a 3-0 lead.

The Cardinals had a chance to get on the board early in the first. Arrieta issued a two-out walk to Matt Holliday and Adams' soft fly ball dropped in front of Lake in left field to put men at the corners. Arrieta stranded the runners after striking out Yadier Molina.

Lake doubled off the brick wall in left field to lead off the fifth for Chicago. Wacha walked Mike Olt before striking out both Arrieta and Emilo Bonifacio. Luis Valbuena walked to load the bases, but Rizzo grounded out to first as Wacha ended the threat.

Hector Rondon came on to pitch the ninth for the Cubs. Molina and Peralta both greeted him with singles, but he got Jon Jay to ground into a double play and struck out Mark Ellis to preserve the win and earn his third save of the season.

Game Notes

Chicago was winless in its last eight series at Wrigley Field since going 2-1 against Philadelphia from Aug. 30-Sept. 1 of last season ... It was also the first time that the Cubs have won three straight games since a three-game sweep of the Giants on July 26-28 of last season ... Castro extended his hitting streak to seven games ... Cardinals right fielder Allen Craig's six- game hitting streak came to an end.






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