A short-lived celebration turned into a frustrating loss for the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday night.
The Cardinals appeared to have defeated the Chicago Cubs after an off-target throw at first base in the ninth inning, but an umpire's decision gave the Cubs new life and they capitalized with a 6-3 victory in 11 innings at Busch Stadium.
Jake Fox's two-run homer in the 11th against Mitchell Boggs (2-3) made it 5-3, and the Cubs added insurance later in the inning on Brad Thompson's wild pitch. Fox connected on an 0-1 pitch and sent it into the second row of the bleachers in left center, his 11th of the season.
"I made a poorly executed pitch to Jake Fox," Boggs said. "I made a bad pitch and he jumped on it. It was a fastball up and in, and for a guy like that, with his swing, that's exactly what he was looking for. I was trying to go down and away. I just didn't make a pitch. Poor execution."
Fox's blast averted a three-game sweep by the Cardinals (87-63), whose magic number for clinching the National League Central remained four. St. Louis won the first two games of the series in the bottom of the ninth --3-2 on Friday on Matt Holliday's home run and 2-1 on Saturday on Brendan Ryan's hit.
The Cardinals were in position for their third consecutive walk-off victory when they loaded the bases with one out in the ninth against relievers Sean Marshall, Aaron Heilman and Esmailin Caridad.
Skip Schumaker opened with a single against Marshall. Heilman relieved and Mark DeRosa sacrificed Schumaker to second before issuing an intentional walk to Albert Pujols. Caridad relieved and plunked Holliday with a pitch.
Ryan Ludwick hit a sharp grounder to Chicago second baseman Andres Blanco, who shoveled the ball to shortstop Ryan Theriot coming across the bag.
Theriot stepped on second, but his throw to first tailed, forcing Derrek Lee to come off the bag and attempt a sweeping tag on Ludwick as he ran down the line. Lee missed, and the Cardinals had seemingly won the game 4-3.
But second-base umpire Marty Foster called out Holliday for leaving the basepath and going after Theriot. The 4-6-3 double play enabled the Cubs to escape.
"I felt like I had to break up a double play there --by any means necessary," Holliday said. "(Foster) said I wasn't close enough to the base."
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa came onto the field to talk to Foster, who showed La Russa where Holliday had left his mark in the dirt from the slide.
"That happens a lot when guys get hit by a pitch. They want to try and take the pivot man out," La Russa said. "You usually get a little room to vent their anger, but not in the game.
"It's a tough loss, but we played it to the end. We played as hard as we could and as good as we could, so turn the page."
Cy Young award candidate Adam Wainwright pitched effectively for the Cardinals, but received no decision as he trailed 3-2 when he departed after seven innings. It was Wainwright's second attempt to nail down victory No. 19.
Wainwright allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits, with two walks and 10 strikeouts.
Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano also wasn't involved in the decision, either. Zambrano worked six innings, permitted two runs (earned) on five hits, walked three and struck out six.
The Cubs took a 1-0 lead in the fifth on Mike Fontenot's infield single and Blanco's double off the wall in right-center.
Right fielder Ludwick made a clean pickup of the carom and a strong relay to second baseman Schumaker, whose throw to catcher Yadier Molina sailed, allowing Fontenot to slide safely home. Wainwright stranded Blanco at third by retiring Zambrano and Kosuke Fukudome on ground balls.
The Cardinals took the lead in the fifth.
Schumaker had a one-out walk ahead of DeRosa's double that plugged the gap in left-center. Pujols followed with a double past third, putting the Cardinals on top 2-1. The hit gave Pujols 128 RBIs this season and 1,105 in his career, which is tied with Jim Bottomley for third place on the club's all-time list.
Chicago took a 3-2 lead in the sixth, with one of the runs being unearned.
Bobby Scales walked and Aramis Ramirez singled to center one out later. Micah Hoffpauir's run-scoring single to center made it 2-2.
Geovany Soto hit a grounder to Schumaker, whose flip to shortstop Ryan forced Hoffpauir. But Ryan's wild relay to first got away from Pujols for an error that allowed Ramirez to score the go-ahead run.
Molina's RBI single against Kevin Gregg tied the game at 3 in the eighth.
Fukudome saved two runs when he robbed Ludwick of at least a double in the first, leaping to make a sensational catch before crashing into the fence.
Contact reporter David Wilhelm at
dwilhelm@bnd.com or 239-2665.
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