Cubs top Cardinals as Carpenter's homer streak ends at six games

[July 23, 2018]  The historic home run streak for St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Matt Carpenter ended Sunday afternoon, when Kyle Schwarber's sixth-inning solo shot snapped a tie and spurred the Chicago Cubs to a 7-2 win over the Cardinals in the finale of a five-game series at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs won three out of five games in the series to extend their lead in the National League Central to 3 1/2 games over the second-place Milwaukee Brewers. The Cardinals fell into fourth place, a game behind the Pittsburgh Pirates and 8 1/2 games behind Chicago.

Carpenter, who set a single-season Cardinals record by homering in his previous six games, went 1-for-4. He surprised the Cubs by leading off the first with a bunt single and eventually scored the game's first run on a sacrifice fly by Paul DeJong.

Carpenter was intentionally walked in the second, struck out in the fourth and grounded out in the seventh before popping out for the second out of the ninth.

Carpenter was the first Cardinals player to homer in six straight games since Mark McGwire went deep in his final two games of the 1997 season and the first four games of the 1998 season. He finished two games shy of tying the major league record shared by Dale Long, Don Mattingly and Ken Griffey Jr.

The Cardinals led 2-0 following Yairo Munoz's RBI double in the fourth before the Cubs began their comeback in the bottom of the inning, when Ian Happ (double) and Willson Contreras (single) had RBI hits in a three-batter span.

Cubs left fielder Kyle Schwarber (12) watches his solo home run during the sixth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

Schwarber homered with two outs in the sixth off Mike Mayers (2-1). Kris Bryant delivered an RBI single in the seventh before Contreras, Albert Almora Jr. and Anthony Rizzo all had run-scoring singles in the eighth.

Contreras, Bryant, Rizzo and Addison Russell all had two hits apiece.

Jose Quintana (9-6) earned the win after allowing two runs on six hits and four walks while striking out six over seven innings.

Munoz, Yadier Molina and Dexter Fowler had two hits each for the Cardinals.

Starter Miles Mikolas allowed two runs on six hits and two walks while striking out six over five innings.

--Field Level Media

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