The Cubs lost to the Cardinals 12-4 on 7/13.
The Cubs can't seem to get past the Cardinals this year as this was the second time the Cards beat
the Cubs this year. On both occassions close games were broken open in the 7th inning.
Tom Barnes started and went 2 innings. John Gordon battled through 6 innings despite being hit in the
calf by a line drive and also being hit by a pitch in the back.
The Cubs defense was OK, but it was one of those days where every hit seemed to be a foot away from a
defender. There were a couple great plays. The play of the game defensively was turned in by Brad
Adams and John. Brad dove to his right from first base to snare a grounder and from his back threw the
ball to a covering John Gordon. The throw was ankle high and John made the catch and tagged the bag
for the out. The other sparkler was a strange double play. With runners at first and second and no
outs, a soft liner was hit to shallow right. Chris Ricker, playing second base, almost made a tough
catch but didn't come up with it. He threw to second to get that runner, but the runner at second
thought the ball would be caught and was tagged out at third by Rich Wenning after a great throw from
Dennis Fontecchio from the second base bag.
The Cubs offense struggled to get the key hit with runners on base. They stranded several runners in this
game. There were only 7 hits. Andy Luckhardt had 2, Paul Sonnett, Dennis, Brad and Rich Schwarz had
singles. Kenny Hamm hit a bomb of a triple for the only extra base hit. Earl Carpenter also hit a
ball to left that had the distance to leave the park but went just foul.