ST. LOUIS – John Lackey outpitched old teammate Jon Lester, allowing two hits into the eighth inning, and rookies Tommy Pham and Stephen Piscotty each homered late as the St. Louis Cardinals cooled off the ChicagoCubs with a 4-0 victory Friday night in the opener of their NL Division Series.
In front of a standing room only crowd of 47,830 – the second-largest at 10-year-old Busch Stadium – thousands of Cubs faithful mixed into the red throng for the first postseason game between the two long-time rivals.
Lackey held the Cubs hitless for five innings, getting help from Kris Bryant’ double-play ball by to end the fourth. Addison Russell ended the suspense with a solid single up the middle to open the sixth and Kyle Schwarber’s bunt hit leading off the seventh was the only other hit allowed by Lackey in 7 1-3 innings.
Game 2 of the best-of-five series is Saturday. The Cardinals turn to lefty Jaime Garcia (10-6), who made 20 starts coming off risky thoracic surgery. Kyle Hendricks (8-7) makes his postseason debut for the NL wild-card winners.
Matt Holliday had an RBI single in the first, giving St. Louis a lead after just three at-bats. Pinch-hitting, Pham homered off Lester with one out in the eighth to snap a string of 13 straight outs for the lefty. Piscotty had a two-run shot off Pedro Strop in the eighth.