NLDS Game 3 Notes – Cardinals 6 @ Cubs 8

Executing the Game PlanThe plan for the Cubs was to split in St. Louis and then come home with Jake Arrieta on the mound in game three to take a nice lead in the series. Mission accomplished in St. Louis, so it set up nicely last night to complete the mission. However, the Cardinals also had a game plan. They wanted to come out, get good at bats against Arrieta, run up the pitch count as much as possible against a guy who may just be part cyborg, and try to get to that Cubs pen early. Mission accomplished by them as well. Jake posted his shortest outing since June 16th, posting just 5.2 innings of work and allowing 4 earned runs. Had you told me that was going to happen before the game started, I would have assumed we had lost. Thankfully we did not. When it comes down to it, game three belonged to the offenses, as Michael Wacha struggled as well and was pulled without even completing the 5th inning. It was just one of those nights at Wrigley, where the wind is blowing out like crazy and you have to expect a slugfest.

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