ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jeff Samardzija hopes his traditional June swoon is a thing of the past.

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COMMENTARY | As the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals are busy “renewing” their age-old rivalry this week in St. Louis, looking back on the last 25 years or so makes fans wonder what rivalry it is that the teams are renewing exactly?

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ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta Braves waited a long time to get going.

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Alfonso Soriano recently gave some tough love to beguiled closer Carlos Marmol after he blew another game Sunday for the Chicago Cubs. Reporter Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune said he’s never seen Soriano more upset during his seven-year stay with the Cubs:

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DENVER (AP) — Jhoulys Chacin walked to the mound in the ninth inning, fired up and ready to finish a gem.

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The Chicago Cubs and New York Mets played a relatively uneventful game for eight innings on Saturday afternoon. In the top of the ninth inning, however, the two teams, along with the four umpires led by crew chief Gary Cederstrom, were involved in possibly the most complicated and confusing fielder’s choices you’ll ever see.
The play happened with the bases loaded, nobody out and Chicago’s Darwin Barney at the plate. Barney would end up hitting a soft liner to shallow center field that Juan Lagares appeared to trap at first look, but probably caught after further review. It was a tough, flip-of-the-coin type call any way you slice it, which might explain why none of the four umpires offered an initial ruling. Eventually, first base umpire Lance Barrett signaled the ball was trapped, but at that point there were three baserunners trapped in no man’s land, nine fielders that didn’t know which way was up, and three other umpires still deciding in their own minds what just happened.
It was, in a word, chaotic, and when all was said and done, only one out was recorded and no runners advanced.
I don’t know that I could do this play justice with a full play-by-play, but I can confidently tell you that after coming up with the ball, Lagares quickly fired to second base for what he thought was a potential double play. However, runner Ryan Sweeney made it back in time so he was ruled safe, which would have been true regardless of the call in center field. What actually ended up happening on the throw, Justin Turner caught it and stepped on second, which forced out the runner at first, Nate Schierholtz, and essentially ended the play right there because there were no longer any force outs in play.

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San Francisco Giants closer Sergio Romo was a little off on Saturday afternoon, and the Atlanta Braves took full advantage. For the first time in 176 appearances — the longest such streak in baseball dating back to Aug. 28, 2010 — Romo issued multiple walks. That helped turn a precarious 5-4 ninth inning lead for the Giants into a dramatic 6-5 walk-off win for the Braves .
After striking out Ramiro Pena to start the inning, Romo walked Atlanta’s pinch-hitting ace-in-the-hole, Evan Gattis. An unlikely error by the usually sure-handed Brandon Crawford would set the Braves up with two baserunners, and then Jason Heyward singled to load them up. That set up a confrontation with Justin Upton that Romo ended up losing after a borderline 3-2 slider was ruled ball four. From the outside looking in, it was a tough pitch to take and even gutsier pitch to throw, but Upton got the call.
After pinch-runner Reed Johnson trotted home with the tying run, Freddie Freeman would step in and deliver the winner when he pulled a 1-1 fastball into right for a clean single. It was a terrific piece of hitting, but the talk after the game went back to the 3-2 pitch against Upton. Here’s more from Charles Odum of the Associated Press.
”It was a close pitch but I obviously think it’s a ball,” Upton said. ”Pitchers want that pitch. It went my way.”
Asked about the 3-2 pitch, Romo said ”It really doesn’t matter what I think. The outcome of the game is already settled.”
Romo said he didn’t let the walk affect his concentration against Freeman.
”I was fine,” he said. ”I had to focus. We were still in the game. Although they tied the game we still had an opportunity to keep playing. You got to dig down deep right there and stay focused.”
When people say it’s a game of inches, they aren’t lying. Tomorrow that same pitch could go the other way.
Rockies offense stays hot despite Tulo’s absence: Though Josh Rutledge — Troy Tulowitzki’s replacement — finished 0 for 6, the Colorado Rockies received multi-hit games from seven different players — including starting pitcher Tyler Chatwood — as they snapped a six-game losing streak against the Philadelphia Phillies with a commanding 10-5 victory. The Rockies did the majority of their damage in the first inning, scoring six times on seven hits, and were finished scoring by the fourth. Catcher Wilin Rosario and rookie third basemen Nolan Arenado led the way with three hits and two RBIs each.
Dodgers blow another lead, win anyway in Pittsburgh: I think most of us are catching on to the belief that pitcher wins isn’t nearly as important a stat as we’ve treated it, but that doesn’t mean Clayton Kershaw wouldn’t buy one if they were for sale. The Los Angeles Dodgers ace remained stuck on five on Saturday despite holding the Pittsburgh Pirates to one run over seven innings. The reason? The Dodgers bullpen — in this case new closer Kenley Jansen — blew its league worst 15th save.
That’s not a good number at all, but there was some salvation this time around. After the Dodgers plated two runs in the 11th to take a 5-3 lead, recently replaced closer Brandon League nailed down his 14th save in the bottom half. That made a win of Peter Moylan, who now has 21 over his eight year career.
MORE SCORES
Cubs 5, Mets 2: Scott Feldman held New York to two hits over seven innings and contributed an RBI single in the win. Starlin Castro’s two-run double in the eighth locked it down.
Red Sox 5, Orioles 4: Jonny Gomes and Mike Carp each homered as Boston bounced back nicely after being shutout on Friday.
Blue Jays 6, Rangers 1: Toronto extends their winning to four while Texas drops its season worst fifth in a row.
Brewers 6, Reds 0: Yovani Gallardo (six shutout innings) and Juan Francisco (three RBIs) spoiled Dusty Baker’s 64th birthday.
Cardinals 13, Marlins 7: Carlos Beltran homered twice as St. Louis overcame a career worst seven runs allowed by Lance Lynn in five innings. Lynn still won — his ninth — while Clayton Kershaw quietly weeps in Pittsburgh.
Rays 5, Royals 3: Tampa Bay can breathe a sigh of relief after learning Alex Cobb suffered only a mild concussion when struck by Eric Hosmer’s vicious line drive.
Nationals 7, Indians 6: Washington hits five home runs, including Anthony Rendon’s go-ahead blast in the ninth inning.
Twins 6, Tigers 3: After missing three weeks with a left calf strain, Trevor Plouffe returned with three hits and three RBIs to pace Minnesota’s offensive attack.
Angels 6, Yankees 2: It’s the fifth straight loss for the Yankees, but the bigger story is that Mark Teixeira aggravated his wrist injury and is headed back to New York for an examination.
Mariners 4, A’s 0: Henry Blanco’s first grand slam since 2000 provided all of the offense.
Padres 6, Diamondbacks 4: Yasmani Grandal capped a five-run fourth inning with a three-run homer to help San Diego improve to 33-34. They’re only four games back in a packed NL West.

”It’s always nice to beat them. When someone tells you that you can’t play for them and they don’t think you’re good enough there’s a little chip on your shoulder when you play them.”
— Lucas Harrell after he led the Astros to a 4-3 victory over his former team, the Chicago White Sox. He’s now 2-0 in two career starts against them.

Umpire Paul Schrieber and Blue Jays catcher Josh Thole are coming for YOU.

• David Ortiz has multiple triples this season for the first time since 2006.
• With their three consecutive wins over Texas this weekend, Toronto has evened the all-time series at 195-195.
• The Yankees are the first team to lose four straight games scoring exactly two runs in each game since the 2007 Mets.
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Cincinnati Reds right-handed reliever Jonathan Broxton was placed on the 15-day disabled list Saturday with an elbow strain in his throwing arm.

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Friday night was a thrilling night for baseball in the state of Ohio.
We’ll start in Cincinnati where the Reds played host to the Milwaukee Brewers in a low-scoring division battle. Starting pitchers Bronson Arroyo and Kyle Lohse weren’t exactly dominant throughout — especially Arroyo, who allowed 12 hits in seven innings — but kept the opponents off the board and their teams in the game. That type of game would end up benefiting Milwaukee as they received a game-tying home run from Martin Maldonado in the eighth that ultimately sent us to our 111th extra-inning game this season .
Once there, a familiar hero emerged for the hometown Reds as outfielder Jay Bruce connected for his fifth career game-ending home run .
”I told somebody earlier it never gets old,” said Bruce, who has 11 homers. ”I hit homers, but walk-offs are completely different. They’re a little sweeter, especially this one because of yesterday.”
In case you’re wondering what yesterday means, the Reds dropped a tough one to Chicago Cubs in 14 innings at Wrigley Field on Thursday afternoon. A second straight gut punch would have been a lousy feeling, but Bruce made sure that didn’t happen with his latest walk-off. Reds win it 4-3 .
Meanwhile, in Cleveland: Not long before Bruce’s game-ending blast, fans at Progressive Field in Cleveland were also going crazy as their Indians pulled out a 2-1 win over the visiting Washington Nationals. Tied at one entering the bottom of the ninth, Drew Stubbs reached with a one out single. Michael Bourn followed with a single of his own, allowing Stubbs to advance to third. After Bourn stole second to take the double play out of order, Jason Kipnis pulled one hard on the ground that first baseman Adam LaRoche fielded cleanly and came up firing to home. It was a bang-bang play at the plate — literally and figuratively — but Stubbs, who was off immediately on contact, got in ahead of the tag.

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Edwin Jackson finally put up a solid start at Wrigley Field his last time out and hopes to find some consistency with a second straight quality outing Friday against the Mets in New York.

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