Cardinals 2 - 3 Cubs
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Cubs take out Cards again with late heroics

Apr 25, 2012 - 5:32 AM

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Chicago, IL (Sports Network) - For the second consecutive night, the Chicago Cubs have beaten the reigning World Series champions in walk-off fashion.

Tony Campana scored the winning run on Alfonso Soriano's single in the bottom of the 10th inning and the Cubs posted another 3-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

St. Louis took a one-run lead into the bottom of the ninth before southpaw Marc Rzepczynski gave up a leadoff home run to left-handed swinging Bryan LaHair, who crushed the first pitch he saw over the wall in left center. Chicago had failed to homer in each of its last nine games, the longest such stretch since a 10-game drought from June 30-July 13, 2007.

"It was nice to see another great at-bat [by LaHair], a nice swing on the ball," said Chicago manager Dale Sveum.

Rzepczynski retired the next two batters before Darwin Barney reached on Rafael Furcal's fielding error and Geovany Soto followed with a single. Fernando Salas (0-1) replaced Rzepczynski and struck out pinch-hitter Joe Mather, who won Monday's series opener with a two-out, two-run single in the ninth.

Campana hit a one-out single off Salas in the 10th and was ruled safe on a stolen base. St. Louis manager Mike Matheny was ejected for arguing the play at second base.

After Starlin Castro, who opened the scoring with a first-inning sacrifice fly, went down swinging, Salas intentionally walked LaHair before Soriano hit a sharp ground ball that deflected off second baseman Tyler Greene and into center field, giving the Cubs their first series win of the season.

Soriano had three hits for Chicago, which will look to complete a three-game sweep on Wednesday afternoon.

Cubs starter Jeff Samardzija scattered four hits, walked two and struck out nine in 6 2/3 innings. James Russell (1-0) earned the win with a flawless 10th.

Matt Holliday clubbed a two-run homer off Carlos Marmol in the eighth for the Cardinals, who had won 13 regular-season series in a row.

St. Louis right-hander Adam Wainwright pitched his best game since returning from Tommy John surgery. In six full frames, he gave up six hits, walked one and fanned seven.

"There's still ways I can get a lot better than I was tonight, but my hook came back tonight, threw my off-speed well and threw my fastball where I wanted to for the most part," Wainwright said.

Game Notes

Furcal walked twice and scored his 1,000th career run on Holliday's two-out blast...Castro ended 0-for-4 to snap an 11-game hitting streak...Both teams left nine men on base.






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