Hendricks stifles Cards again
ST. LOUIS — The way players in the clubhouse view the trade deadline, the Cubs took the field Wednesday night already leading the Cardinals 3-0.
Right-hander David Phelps was added to the bullpen after being acquired in a trade Tuesday, and the Cubs dealt for hitters Tony Kemp and Nick Castellanos on deadline day Wednesday.
The Cardinals?
Put it this way: When an unexplained stench wafted strongly enough through the downtown St. Louis area early in the game that writers requested their press-box windows be closed, one scribe joked it was caused by the Cards’ malodorous efforts at the deadline.
The Cards added nobody to their bigleague roster, and a few hours later they were knocked out of sole possession of first place when the Cubs beat them 2-0 behind another Cardinal-beating gem by Kyle Hendricks.
“I was pumped about it, man,” said Hendricks (7-7), whose seven scoreless, walk-less innings lifted the Cubs to their 11th consecutive victory against the Cards when he starts. “When you make a move, it adds to the excitement for sure, especially when you add good players like we did.”
The Cubs, who are tied with the Cardinals atop the National League Central, still have the worst road record in the NL as they try to win a road series Thursday for the first time since May. But they’re 7-4 against St. Louis with seven meetings left.
Change of scenery for Edwards
The last of three trades the Cubs made didn’t add a player to the big-league roster, but it included the most symbolic, if not significant, loss from the organization in setup man Carl Edwards Jr. — the man who recorded two of the final three outs in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series.
He was traded to the Padres for lefthander Brad Wieck.
Edwards, who was dominant for much of 2016-18, struggled at the end of last season and with mechanics into this season. He also dealt with an upper-back injury this year and was viciously targeted with racist social media posts when he struggled early this season (his family also enduring racist taunts yelled at him in their vicinity at SunTrust Park in Atlanta).
“We’ll never forget his contributions,” general manager Jed Hoyer said. “This was a situation that there’s on other way to say it but that we felt that it was time for a change of scenery.
“That happens in sports. You get to a place with a certain organization or a certain whatever it is about that setting. Maybe you lose some of your confidence. You lose some of your mojo. And we felt we were at that point.”
Hoyer said he couldn’t be sure how much the racist fan behavior might have contributed the loss of “mojo” this year.
“Some of that off-field stuff certainly can’t make you more comfortable in a place,” Hoyer said. “But I can’t pinpoint it.”
He made it
Kemp, acquired from the Astros for recently acquired catcher Martin Maldonado, arrived in time to be available for the game.