Chicago Cubs finish sweep of Cardinals

OK, so maybe Sunday's 4-3 Chicago Cubs victory over the St. Louis Cardinals didn't represent a "clean" sweep.

There was plenty of dust left behind after this one, as both teams failed to take control. But in the end the only thing left in the dust were the Cardinals, who fell 6 games behind the first-place Cubs in the National League Central.

The Cubs won their sixth in a row to improve to 83-66 and remain 4 games ahead of the second-place Milwaukee Brewers (79-70), who beat the Miami Marlins.

Jason Heyward put the Cubs ahead for good with an RBI single in the seventh inning after former Cub Dexter Fowler hit a 3-run homer off Jose Quintana in the sixth.

"I don't think there's any comfort level until we get where we want to get," Heyward said. "One step at a time, got to get in, got to get into October to win."

This one was uncomfortable for the Cubs right up to the end, when closer Wade Davis retired Fowler on a flyout to deep center with a man on base.

Hearts were in throats when Fowler made contact.

"I thought it was off the scoreboard," Davis said. "I looked over to the third-base dugout and saw all the fans start yelling. I was like, 'Oh, I'm good now.' "

An east wind of 5 mph at game time seemed to pick up late in the day, and that might have saved Davis and allowed him to earn his 31st save in 31 chances.

Manager Joe Maddon has seen it before.

"I looked up, flag, thank you," he said. "He actually hit 2 home runs, but you know what? That's happened to us a lot, also. It happens at this ballpark."

Both teams wasted big-time chances in this game, with the Cubs leaving 12 on base and the Cardinal stranding 11 while going 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who seems to kill the Cubs, grounded into an inning-ending double play in the fourth, when the Cubs had a 1-0 lead. Molina hit into another double play in the eighth.

Ben Zobrist had an RBI groundout in the third for the Cubs. Kyle Schwarber hit his 27th homer of the year to lead off the fourth, and Zobrist made it 3-0 later in the inning with a single.

Schwarber figured into Fowler's game-tying homer. While playing left field, Schwarber could not get to Matt Carpenter's flyball as he ran in for it and came up short on a diving attempt. Fowler's homer came after two were out.

"I was giving it everything I got and obviously came up short," Schwarber said. "That's a ball I want to catch, personally. I felt terrible when Dexter hit that home run. You have to be able to move past it because there's still a lot of ballgame left.

"I feel the guys did a really good job putting up solid at-bats and keep going. J-Hey got the big hit there. That was perfect timing and exactly what we needed at that time."

So maybe the game wasn't an "oil painting," as Maddon likes to say, but he was relishing the drama of the day.

"Absolutely," Maddon said. "Both teams wanted to win the game. Both sides pitched really well. They got out of some jams. Both sides' pitchers got out of jams. Just an intense, intense baseball game. Fortunately we got to win it. Give our bullpen credit (9 scoreless innings in the series). These guys are on fumes.

"But really, an incredible game. It was kind of like one of those everybody-gets-involved days, where everybody gets part of the ownership, and I love that."