SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Fist-pumping Johnny Cueto pitched a five-hitter and retired his final 17 batters, and the San Francisco Giants gained ground in the playoff race with a 6-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night. The Cardinals’ loss clinched the NL Central title for the Chicago Cubs.
Hunter Pence hit a two-run homer, Cueto (16-5) had a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the fourth and Angel Pagan followed with an RBI single. Denard Span added a two-run single in the seventh for San Francisco.
The Giants gained a game on the division-leading Los Angeles Dodgers, who are ahead by four after losing at Arizona. San Francisco also moved a game ahead of the Mets in the chase for the top NL wild card and two games up on the Cardinals. St. Louis opened a 10-game road trip, its last of 2016.
The Atlantic Trojans Football team is hoping to get over the hump this week as they travel to take on the Winterset Huskies. The Trojans have suffered two straight close losses to Shenandoah and Denison-Schleswig and hope they can finish this week to get a win. Head Coach Mike McDermott said an emphasis for his team this week has been to find a way to win.
The Trojans will playing a Winterset team that has the same thoughts on their minds as they have come up just short in their last two games as well, including a 17-13 loss to ADM last week. Coach McDermott knows that the Huskies are a tougher challenge than their 0-3 record suggests.
Atlantic mixed up the offense last week against Denison-Schleswig by moving Jaxson Eden up under center and Garrett Franken out on the edge, which resulted in a big passing touchdown. Coach McDermott knows they will have to pick their spots to try to hit the big play against a strong Huskies defense led by Conner Van Pelt and Noah Larson.
Winterset Head Coach Zach Sweeney talked about establishing the run as being a focus for his team with Running Back Brad Benshoof already carrying the ball 56 times for 296 yard and a score for his team this year. Coach Sweeney also talked about setting the down on defense by shutting down Atlantic’s run game.
Both teams will obviously be hungry to get a win after losing close games last week and Coach Sweeney talked about his team needing to improve in some of the intangible categories to get in the win column.
We’ll have coverage of the Trojans and the Huskies on Friday night on KJAN. Catch our weekly pick ’em show Who’s Gonna Win? at 6:00pm, followed by the Dvorak Tire and Service Pre-Game Show at 6:30pm, and Kickoff will be at 7:30pm. Chris Parks and Mike Smith will have the call on AM1220, FM101.1, online at kjan.com, and on the KJAN app. You can also check out live streaming video on the TV page at kjan.com.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Anthony Rizzo hit a pair of home runs and Jon Lester pitched eight dominant innings as the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-0 on Wednesday to clinch at least a wild-card playoff berth.
The Cubs improved their MLB-best record to 93-52 and their magic number is one to clinch their first National League Central title since 2008. Chicago secured a playoff berth because St. Louis and San Francisco are the only teams that could pass them in the standings, but since those teams open a four-game series on Thursday both teams wouldn’t be able to do so.
The Cardinals began the day a half-game behind the New York Mets and a full game behind the Giants for one of the two wild-card spots.
Lester (17-4) allowed four base runners, none of which got past first. Cubs catcher David Ross threw out two Cardinals trying to steal second and Lester faced just two batters over the minimum.
St. Louis starter Carlos Martinez (14-8) gave up four runs and eight hits in six innings.
ST. LOUIS, Mo., September 14, 2016 – The St. Louis Cardinals announced prior to today’s game that they have activated right-handed pitcher Michael Wacha (right shoulder inflammation) from the 15-day disabled list. Wacha, 25, had missed 32 games since going on the disabled list August 9 following his most recent start on August 8 vs. Cincinnati.
Wacha is 7-7 with a 4.45 ERA in 23 games started (131.1 IP) this season, winning each of his last five decisions dating to June 22.
The 2013 National League Championship Series MVP and 2015 National League All-Star is 33-21 with a 3.55 ERA in 87 career games (81 starts). He’s made six career regular season relief appearances, all in 2013, and was also used in relief in Game 5 of the 2014 NLCS, suffering the series-ending defeat.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Kansas City Chiefs have released third-round pick KeiVarae Russell and brought back linebacker Dezman Moses in a surprise move just one week into the regular season. Russell, a cornerback, had been passed over by sixth-round pick D.J. White and recent acquisition Kenneth Acker on the depth chart. Russell was the Chiefs’ second player chosen in the April draft.
The move Wednesday was likely made to shore up special teams, though it was unexpected given the high draft pick the Chiefs used on the former Notre Dame standout. Moses was cut last week when the Chiefs needed to reach the NFL’s 53-man roster limit.