Chicago Cubs close home slate with win

The Chicago Cubs had a little charge in their battery Sunday night.

Starting pitcher Jon Lester worked 6⅔ innings of shutout baseball and lowered his ERA from 2.36 to 2.28 and upped his record to 19-4 as the Cubs defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 at Wrigley Field.

Lester's batterymate, catcher David Ross, got the royal treatment from the 40,859 fans in attendance.

Ross, who is retiring after the postseason, was given a standing ovation each time up in his final regular-season game at Wrigley Field.

In his second at-bat, in the fifth, he launched a solo home run to left. It was his 10th of the year, and it earned him a curtain call.

Manager Joe Maddon saved his best for last. Maddon went to the mound in the seventh after Brandon Moss flied out for the second out. Instead of taking Lester out, Maddon allowed Ross to leave the game to another standing ovation.

This weekend series started Friday, with the Cubs giving Ross a video tribute and presenting him with gifts at home plate.

"How about Rossy, huh?" said Lester. "He only cried about three times."

Ross seemed overwhelmed by it all. He also tipped his cap to Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who stepped away from the plate to allow Ross to enjoy his moments.

"Wow," he said. "What a treat for a backup catcher to get that kind of ovation. Yadi's such a professional and recognizes the moment and gives me that. And then he gives me another one. I'm overwhelmed with emotion and thoughts and reflection."

Maddon credited Lester with the idea of letting Ross leave the field to an ovation.

"It was kind of cool the way the fans treated David tonight," Maddon said. "Very emotional for everybody, the fans, the players. I went out to the mound and said, 'I've never done this before, but you're out of the game.' "

Lester has put himself into serious consideration for the Cy Young Award.

"I thought Jon was fantastic again," Maddon said. "Definitely making a strong case for the award."

The Cubs added a run in the sixth on back-to-back doubles by Ben Zobrist and Addison Russell. The Cardinals got a run against the Cubs' bullpen in the eighth before the Cubs added an insurance run in the bottom half.

With the victory, the Cubs improved to 99-56. They set a Wrigley Field franchise record with 57 home wins. They have reached at least 99 wins for a season for the seventh time and for the first time since the 1935 Cubs went 100-54.

Relievers galore:

The Cubs have settled on lefty Rob Zastryzny to start their "bullpen" game in Thursday's series finale in Pittsburgh.

Zastryzny, who came up from Class AAA Iowa on Aug. 19 but who has seen little action of late, will start the game and be followed by several relievers.

"We want to keep him active," Joe Maddon said. "We want to keep (Mike) Montgomery in the bullpen. That's part of it. We wanted to get Rob Z stretched out a little bit. You never know what's going to happen. He's shown really well. I have a lot of faith in his makeup. Here's a perfect example of a guy that doesn't throw 96-95 (mph).

"He has nice stuff. He knows what he's doing with his fastball. He knows what he's doing with his cutter and his changeup."

Kyle Hendricks, John Lackey and Jake Arrieta will be the first three pitchers in Pittsburgh. For next weekend's final regular-season series, in Cincinnati, the Cubs will go with Jason Hammel, Jon Lester and Hendricks.

Packing them in:

Sunday's attendance was 40,859, bringing the season total to 3,232,420, the third-highest home total in Cubs history.