Cubs 6 - 3 Cardinals
Final
  for this game

Cubs, Cardinals close series at Busch

Jul 31, 2011 - 2:50 PM

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(Sports Network) - Jake Westbrook has pitched well under the lights. The 33- year-old right-hander aims to help the Cardinals finish off a weekend sweep of the Chicago Cubs tonight at Busch Stadium.

Westbrook is 3-0 over his last seven starts and hasn't lost since June 12 at Milwaukee. Additionally, he's 7-1 in 13 night starts this season. Most recently, Westbrook limited Houston to a run over six innings in a 3-1 win on Tuesday.

The veteran has a career 2-1 record with a 6.59 ERA vs. the Cubs in three games. He suffered an 11-4 loss at Wrigley Field on May 11 in a game that was delayed 53 minutes due to rain. Westbrook worked two scoreless innings to start, but was rockied for five runs after the delay.

Ryan Dempster will try to snap a personal two-game skid tonight. The Cubs righty gave up three runs over six innings in a defeat at Milwaukee Tuesday. He's 7-8 in 45 games (19 starts) vs. the Cardinals.

The Cardinals, who are knocking on the door for first place in the NL Central, have owned the Cubs in this series by a combined 22-7 count. They are 1 1/2 games behind the Brewers for first place and after this game, a three-game set at Milwaukee looms.

Ryan Theriot's three-run double capped an eight-run fifth inning Saturday as the Cardinals erupted for a 13-5 win. Theriot finished with four hits, Albert Pujols hit a solo homer and David Freese had a two-run homer and three RBI for the Cardinals.

The Cubs, who have lost five in a row, scored all five of their runs in the first inning off Kyle Lohse, who settled down to pitch four sparkling innings after that to get the win.

Chicago had two of its three hits in the inning -- Geovany Soto's two-run double and Alfonso Soriano's three-run homer -- before Lohse (9-7) retired the next 12 batters in a row.

"You can't give Kyle enough credit," said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. "A real rough start and then all of a sudden he shuts them down. That's baseball."

The Cardinals sent 12 batters to the plate during the fifth inning, taking a 10-5 lead with a rally that included two doubles, two singles, five walks and an error. Two of the walks were intentional.

The inning lasted around 30 minutes. During it, Cubs manager Mike Quade was ejected for arguing with second base umpire Derryl Cousins about Matt Holliday's hard slide into Chicago shortstop Starlin Castro on a force play that scored two runs.

Holliday slid hard into Castro, throwing his legs out to break up the chance of an inning-ending double play. Five more runs scored after the play, which left Castro with a ripped sock from Holliday's spikes.

"Momentum in the game is huge," Quade complained.

The Cardinals are 7-1 against the Cubs this season, winning the last six meetings.






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