Little things add up to another Cubs loss to Cardinals

The Chicago Cubs are experiencing difficulty closing the gap between them and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Jon Lester wasn't in the mood to celebrate his first major league hit after 66 hitless at-bats to being his career.



But Lester who beat St. Louis twice en route to winning the second of his two World Series rings with Boston, elaborated on the Cardinals' knack for success that continued Monday night in a 6-0 win over the Cubs.

"They're a veteran team," Lester said after throwing 6 1/3 no-hit innings but was victimized by a throwing error by third baseman Kris Bryant that led to two unearned runs in the seventh and snapped a scoreless tie. They do everything right. They make the plays when they're in front of them. They have timely hitting. They understand it takes nine innings to win a baseball game.

"We're close. We got a bunch of young guys who are trying to, not say survive because they're beyond that point, they're too good to survive. They're here for a long time. When you're used to winning, you understand how to win, and that will take some time here. The guys who have been a part of this organization haven't won for a long time. That will take some time to learn, and sometimes I think nights like this get overshadowed by the other side."

Lester pointed to seven shutout innings by counterpart John Lackey, who lost a bet to Lester over his first hit and owed him a beer. And a diving stop by second baseman Kolten Wong that turned an RBI single by Starlin Castro into an inning-ending double play in the sixth.

"Plain and simple, we'll be there," Lester said. "Sometimes it only takes one where you're down two or three and come back and win, and everyone gets a little bit of confidence or aura about them and you take it from there.

"Until it happens, these guys have been playing good baseball against us, and we got to find a way to combat that."

The Cardinals have won five consecutive games against the Cubs and are now 8-2 against them this season. The Cardinals have been the standard for the Cubs despite the fact that the Pirates currently are in second place in the National League Central and remain six games behind the Cardinals and 3 ½ games ahead of the Cubs.

"We've got to beat the guys in our division, and that goes with the Cardinals," Lester said  "We've played very good baseball against the other guys, but we haven't against these guys.. We got to figure out a way. But all in all, we're above .500., right there in the wild card and we've had some spurts. We've had spurts going the other way and at the end of the day, we're right there. It's a good point to start from and keep grinding out."

At the halfway point of the regular season, the Cubs (44-37) are on pace to win 88 games but may need to win 90 to be assured of one of two wild card berths.

The difference could be how the Cubs change their fortunes in the remaining nine games against the Cardinals, who own a major league-best 54-28 record and 23-17 mark on the road.

"Give them credit," manager Joe Maddon said. "That's why their record is as good as it is, because they've been able to take advantage of moments."

Maddon lamented the fact the Cubs have squandered some late-inning leads against the Cardinals that have prevented their record from looking more attractive.

"They have our number," Maddon said. "I definitely admit to that. But there's a long way to go. I've been involved in these moments with young teams, and I like our guys a lot."

Maddon reminded a reporter that the Cubs swept the Mets last week and won two of three from the Marlins this weekend with dominant pitching. Maddon also added that Monday's loss looked worse only because the Cardinals scored four times off Edwin Jackson in the ninth.


"Don't take one bad inning and blow the whole thing up," Maddon said. "It was a bad ninth inning after sitting on our butts (due to a one-hour, 16-minute rain delay."