Baseball sticks to Cardinals player’s chest protector

We have seen baseballs get caught in gloves and even inside uniforms before, but a chest protector?

Cecil and Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said Friday they had not heard from Major League Baseball, which later said it had reviewed the play and there wasn’t any rules violation. “I have no idea how it happened”. One, they already had a positive outcome thanks to it with their batter reaching base after a strikeout, so why look into things further? “But if we get that first out, everything changes”.

Wednesday: The Cubs’ game against the Cardinals was rained out.

After a walk to Jon Jay, Schwarber homered to right to give the Cubs a 5-4 lead. The Cardinals batted around in the first inning, lacing three consecutive singles to open up their lead at 3-0.

It was Game 3 of last season when Schwarber collided with center fielder Fowler in left-center, suffering a knee injury so severe it required reconstructive surgery and sidelined him for the rest of the regular season and first two rounds of the playoffs. “Someone yelled, ‘You made it past Game 3, ‘ and then we all went insane”.

“I turned around the horseshoe, too”, Schwarber said. Although he returned for the World Series and started four games in Cleveland as the designated hitter, this represents his first week as an everyday player since the 2015 season ended.

But it was former teammate John Lackey (1-0) who got the win, thanks to Schwarber’s home run. The Cubbies are slashing.241/.391/.718 against the righty, collecting eight home runs and a 2.98 BAbip.

St. Louis starter Lance Lynn went 5 1/3 innings in his first appearance since October 2, 2015.

James Shields (1-0) threw 5 1/3 innings, allowing two hits and striking out five.

The Cubs tacked on an insurance run when Kris Bryant walked – the first time he’d been on base this year – and that was followed by a single by Anthony Rizzo sending Bryant to third.

Welcome back to the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry, where late-game insane happens.

Cubs: LHP Brian Duensing remains on the 10-day disabled list with back spasms. All relievers have bad appearances, it’s just unfortunate this one is going to make his ERA look bad for all of April.

Stats: Szczur is 0 for 2 this year.

The Cubs move on to Milwaukee for a three-game set with the Brewers beginning Friday night. It was a positive start following a rough season past year, as he allowed Tyler Collins’ solo homer in the second inning to open the scoring, but the Tigers managed only four hits.