The St. Louis Cardinals will take on the Chicago Cubs on Saturday at 4:37 p.m. CT/5:37 ET on TBS in Game 2 of the NL Division Series in the Major League Baseball. The Cardinals are coming from a fresh 4-0 victory against the Chicago Cubs in their series opener following a strong performance by John Lackey.
In the Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals, the Cardinals are 8-0 in the NLDS when they took Game 1 while the Cubs have lost all 11 postseason series.
"I hate [saying] 'must win,' because I think they're all must win, especially this late in the year," Chris Coghlan said of the Cubs' status in the series after winning Game 1. "If we can win one out of two here the whole time, I think that's a victory. [Saturday], if we come out and do our thing, I feel if we execute and play our game, we'll come out on top."
Cubs third baseman and National League Rookie of the Year front-runner Kris Bryant has been sitting on that RBI total since Sept. 27, which was the Cubs' most recent game at Wrigley Field. The Cubs need Bryant to find the confident stroke that helped him hit .275 with 26 home runs and 99 RBIs.
In the past eight games, traveling to Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh before arriving under the Gateway Arch, Bryant has gone 3-for-30 with no extra-base hits. He's kept his poise, continuing to appear mature beyond his years, but that doesn't mean this unproductive streak isn't weighing on him.
"That's why it's first one to three. It's a race, it's not a sprint," said Cubs outfielder Kyle Schwarber. "The Pittsburgh game was a sprint. This is a nice little jog that we need to pace ourselves. If we go out there and win the next game, we put ourselves in a pretty good situation and going back home to our crowd. We're not too worried. We are frustrated that we lost, but it happens.
"It's baseball, it's an up-and-down ride. Luckily, this is first to three [wins]."
The Cardinals are likely to start Brandon Moss at first base and move Piscotty from first to the outfield for Game 2. Moss landed a spot on the postseason roster over organizational favorite Matt Adams, in part because Moss went 4-for-7 with two doubles last weekend. The Cardinals could have kept both Moss and Adams, but they opted for both Pham and Jon Jay as backup outfielders, perhaps because of health concerns for Randal Grichuk and Piscotty.
This will be the Cubs' ninth consecutive game away from Wrigley Field. They finished the regular season with three-game sweeps in Cincinnati and Milwaukee, then won the NL Wild Card Game in Pittsburgh before having their 10-game road winning streak end in Game 1.
First pitch: 5:30 p.m. Central, 6:30 p.m. Eastern.
TV: TBS (live stream on Watch TBS Live) or mobile app; Postseason.tv.
Watch online: MLB.com (subscription required; $4.99 for all postseason minus World Series).
Radio: Cubs Radio Network, WBBM 780, ESPN Radio; CRN, KMOX 1120.
