CHICAGO - The St. Louis Cardinals rallied to tie the game in the eighth inning, take the lead in the ninth, then overcame a botched infield fly ruling by the umpiring crew in the bottom of the ninth to take a 4-2 win over the Chicago Cubs Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field, extending its club-record winning streak to 16 and also clinching a tie for the second wild-card berth in the upcoming National League postseason.
The win climaxed an eight-game road trip, where the Redbirds swept four games each from both the Cubs and the Milwaukee Brewers, who officially clinched the National League Central Division title with an 8-4 win at American Family Field over the New York Mets.
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St. Louis took the lead in the top of the third when Paul Goldschmidt hit his 31st homer of the year, a shot to straightaway center field to put the Cards up 1-0. Chicago came back to go ahead in the home half of the fourth, when a ground rule double by Sergio Alcatrana scored Willson Contreras with the tying run, then a David Bote sacrifice fly to right field scored Matt Duffy to put the Cubbies up 2-1.
The Cardinals had opportunities in both the sixth and seventh innings, but couldn't score, and the Cubs held the lead until with two out in the top of the eight, Harrison Bader sent a 0-1 pitch over the left-center field bleacher onto Waveland Avenue for a dramatic game-tying home run that drew St. Louis level 2-2.
The Cardinals took the lead in the top of the ninth when Andrew Knizner scored on a Codi Heuer wild pitch to put St. Louis ahead 3-2, then Tyler O'Neill grounded back to the box, but Heuer couldn't handle the ball cleanly, but was able to get O'Neill at first, scoring Lars Nootbaar to extend the Cardinal lead to 4-2.
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