St Louis: John Brebbia pitched in 70 major league games before earning his first career win. When the wait was over, the individual accomplishment was an afterthought compared to the exhilaration of stopping his team’s arch-rivals from earning their first sweep in nearly eight years at Busch Stadium.
Jack Flaherty and four relievers combined on a four-hitter, Matt Carpenter homered and the St Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 5-0 on Sunday night.
Brebbia (1-1) worked around two hits in a scoreless sixth inning to earn his first major league win. Austin Gomber, Jordan Hicks and Bud Norris each pitched a hitless inning to finish the shutout. It ended the Cardinals’ season-high four-game losing streak and prevented the Cubs from getting their first series sweep in St. Louis since Sept. 13-15, 2010.
“It’s definitely nice to get a win for sure,” Brebbia said. “What’s really nice is we got a win against the Cubs in the division, in what I think is a tight division right now so that’s probably the best part.”
Flaherty allowed just two hits while striking out seven in five innings, but he walked three and hit two batters and was pulled after throwing 97 pitches. He escaped a jam in the third inning when he struck out Kris Bryant with the bases loaded to keep the game scoreless.
“I was able to battle and execute when I needed to,” Flaherty said. “I threw a lot of pitches in a short amount of time. I was hoping to go deeper, but that’s how it goes sometimes.”
