ST. LOUIS _ With the help of some sloppy Chicago Cubs defense, the Cardinals jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning Thursday. But, ultimately, the Cardinals were betrayed by their defense, their bullpen and some bad luck as they lost the rubber game of a three-game series to the Cubs 6-4 at Busch Stadium.
Lance Lynn, making his first start for the Cardinals since Oct. 4, 2015 after he had undergone elbow surgery, pitched a solid 5 1/3 innings, giving up two runs although one of them in the sixth came after Anthony Rizzo's liner sailed over the head of neophyte left fielder Matt Adams.
Left-hander Brett Cecil was at the eye of the storm, in a four-run Chicago seventh, which was highlighted by Kyle Schwarber's go-ahead, three-run homer. The inning had begun in strange fashion when Cecil struck out pinch hitter Matt Szczur only to have the ball stick to something on Yadier Molina's chest protector as Molina frantically looked for the ball in the dirt so he could throw out Szczur at first. He didn't.
Cecil then walked Jon Jay before the left-handed-batting Schwarber, who helped knock the Cardinals out of the 2015 postseason, rifled a ball 404 feet over the right-field wall for a three-run homer.
The next two hitters also would reach bases against Cecil, who had departed before most of the media had reached the clubhouse after the game.
Molina said, "I don't know," several times when asked what had happened on the ball sticking to his protector. But he did say it had never happened to him in his career.
When asked if he had put something on his protector, Molina told a reporter, "That's a dumb question."
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, a former catcher, also said, "I hadn't seen that before. I have no idea. Never seen it. That's all I can tell you."
Replaying the seventh, Matheny said he thought Cecil also had been close to a strikeout of Jay before the walk. "(If) a couple of different things happen, that inning looks different," Matheny said.
"But you can't take away from the home run."
The Cardinals had maximized a Cubs misplay early by getting key singles by Adams and Randal Grichuk in the first inning.
But they left two runners in scoring position in the last two innings.
The Chicago bullpen, for the second game in a row in the series, put together three scoreless innings, with starter John Lackey, who worked the sixth, the beneficiary. Carl Edwards Jr., recorded two strikeouts with two runners on in the eighth. Wade Davis, the Cubs' free-agent relief acquisition, threw a scoreless ninth despite giving up a leadoff double.
Matheny was happy with Lynn's performance, notably that Lynn, who often has thrown 90 percent fastballs in a game, had profited from the use of his secondary pitches. "He wasn't afraid to throw his changeup," Matheny said. "He was putting the 'cut' and 'slide' on it. He threw a couple of slower breaking balls, too."
But, Lynn, who had hoped to get a longer stint out of his 98 pitches, said, "I got a little too fine as the game went on instead of attacking as I did early on. I was trying to make the perfect pitch instead of just attacking.
"That's one to build off of. It's been a while since I've been in a major league game."
Adams had handled every ball hit to him in his first game in the field on Tuesday. But not on Thursday.
"I wish I would have taken a better route on that one ball," he said. "Other than that, I'm feeling pretty good out there."
