Cardinals 9, Cubs 1
Jon Jay drove in three runs and Matt Holliday homered as the visiting St. Louis Cardinals crushed the rival Chicago Cubs, 9-1, on Thursday.
Jamie Garcia pitched seven strong innings and drove in a run for the Cardinals, who took two of three in the series to maintain their lead over the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Central.
St. Louis broke it open with five runs in the second, started when Holliday launched a solo blast - his fifth homer - to deep left off Cubs starter Casey Coleman (1-3). The Cardinals loaded the bases on two hits and an intentional walk in front of Garcia, who pushed a single to right to plate another run.
Jay doubled in two more and Allen Craig added a sacrifice fly to complete the rally.
That was plenty of support for Garcia (5-0), who scattered nine hits while allowing one run and striking out four to maintain his perfect record. The lefthander lowered his ERA to 1.89.
St. Louis added a run in the fifth and broke it open with three more in the seventh to turn it into a blow out.