Chicago Cubs sweep big doubleheader from Cardinals

The Cubs kicked off the second half of their 2015 season on pace to win 88 games.

That's no doubt earned them some respect, perhaps even from the team they're chasing: the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cubs swept a day-night doubleheader from the Cardinals Tuesday, winning the first game 7-4 behind good starting pitching from Jake Arrieta. In the second game, call-up Dallas Beeler gave them 5 decent innings before he headed back to Class AAA Iowa.

The Cubs overcame a 2-1 deficit with 3 runs in the seventh inning, they added an insurance run in the eighth to grab a 5-3 victory.

“It's good,” said Jason Motte, the former Cardinals closer who finished both games for the Cubs and earned his fifth save of the season in Game 2. “When you're able to take two games from a team like that, anytime's good, but especially the way we hung in there the first game and came back in the second game, it's definitely a confidence booster.”

Speaking of respect, it was a key word in manager Joe Maddon's midpoint assessment of his club.

“With all due respect, I feel we can play with anybody, I really do,” he said. “We have to prove it, though. You can talk about it. Talk is really cheap. It's about your actions. For me, for us, I feel strongly about our group, but we've got to prove it.”

Considering where the Cubs have come from in recent years, an 88-win pace would seem acceptable to just about everybody.

“It feels right,” he said. “It definitely feels right. We haven't hit our real stride yet. I feel like we've been really battling through each and every day, which I love. We really haven't played that as good as we're capable of. And I like that. We really haven't played our best ball yet. I think there's a lot to look forward to.”

That might include getting a little greedy from 88 wins.

“I'm always looking at No. 90, better than that,” said Maddon, whose team is on that 90 pace now with a record of 46-37. If you're on an 88 pace, that's pretty good. However, we haven't hit our stride yet. To get to that 90-plus, we've got to play up to our potential across the board, putting all components together, putting the pitching and defense together.”

The advantage the Cubs had in Game 1 was that they were sending their true ace to the mound in Jake Arrieta, and he pitched to form, working 6⅔ innings and giving up 7 hit and 2 runs.

Chris Denorfia's 2-run single in the third gave Arrieta a 2-0 lead. Jorge Soler walked with the bases loaded in the sixth, but true to form, the Cardinals fought back with a pair in the seventh to chase Arrieta. The Cubs broke open a tight game in the eighth with 4 runs, 2 coming on a homer by Anthony Rizzo.

“We were able to put together a pretty nice offensive day, a couple guys with some really good at-bats,” Arrieta said.

Because of the doubleheader, the teams were permitted to add a 26th man to the roster, and for the Cubs, that was Beeler, who made his third major-league start.

His battery mate, catcher Taylor Teagarden (also a recent minor-league call-up), gave him a 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the fifth.,

The 26-year-old Beeler struck out six and got 8 outs on the ground through the fifth inning before the first two batters reached in the sixth to finish his night. The Cardinals ended up scoring twice in the inning to take the lead.

Addison Russell hit a game-tying single in the seventh, and the Cubs got another run on a throwing error by pitcher Kevin Siegrist and a sacrifice fly by Rizzo.