The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals are playing an NL central matchup on Thursday from Busch Stadium and the game for the series finale starts at 1:45 pm ET as Jake Arrieta and John Lackey match up in the pitching duel and this comes as the teams are one-two in the division after a month through the season.
The Cubs come into the game at second place in the division and the team has won one of the first three games against the Cardinals in this series. The two teams will not play again until June and this is a good head to head matchup in the division. The Cards have a five game lead in the division and they are hanging on after losing Adam Wainwright to an injury for the season.
The Cubs come in with Arrieta on the mound and they have played well overall and they have high expectations this season. The team thinks they can compete for the playoffs and this year they feel they have the talent to get things going. The team lost four straight before winning against the Cardinals in the third game of the series and now they will go for two in a row on Thursday afternoon.
The Cubs had leads in the first two games of the series and then lost those matchups and they finally pulled one out on Thursday. The team has the chance to make some noise in the division, but they will have to take down the Cards if they are serious about making the playoffs. The Cardinals came back from multiple runs down in both games and they almost came back against the team on Tuesday and this should be a good pitching duel in the finale.
Joe Maddon has been trying a number of things with his team to get them going and it appeared to be working on Wednesday with the 6-5 win and now he has the chance for another victory. The Cubs are hitting .291 with 19 runs in the series with the Cardinals and Arrieta comes in with some good stats, as he has a 3-2 record and an ERA below 3.00 for the season so far. Arrieta has pitched well against the Cardinals in the past and he is 3-0 in six starts with the team.
Anthony Rizzo is heating up and he has three home runs in the last five games and he also had a two run double in the matchup against the Cardinals. Rizzo was an all-star last season and along with Kris Bryant, he is leading the charge for the Cubs.
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