Liebe, Lust und Leben » needed to establish the run game and we did.The ru

ST. LOUIS -- Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina leads the National League in batting and has put himself in the early discussion for MVP honours, at least in the eyes of St. Louis right-hander Jake Westbrook. Molina hit his fifth home run and Westbrook pitched seven innings of two-hit ball in the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night. Molina said the blast was somewhat of a surprise to him. "Sometimes you get lucky," he said. "That was lucky." Westbrook (3-2) worked around trouble almost the entire night in his second start since coming off the disabled list with a sore elbow. He gave up no earned runs, striking out two and walking three. Edward Mujica pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 21st save in 21 attempts. Westbrook said if he voted for MVP, his battery mate would get the nod. "With the way hes been hitting, but more importantly the way hes handled us as a staff and the way weve been pitching," Westbrook said. "He, in my mind, is the reason for that." Molina is hitting .365 and is pulling away from the field. Colorados Troy Tulowitzki, who is on the disabled list, is second at .347. Molina is just outside of the top 10 in RBIs (41). Hes also guides a Cardinals pitching staff that has the major leagues second-best ERA (3.28). Edwin Jackson (3-9) was pulled after he hit Jon Jay following Molinas blast to left field. He pitched 5 1-3 innings, allowing four earned runs on six hits. He struck out one and walked two. He was going for his third consecutive victory and was pleased with his performance. He wasnt even unhappy with the ball that Molina homered on. "I thought it was a pretty good pitch, but either he was looking for it or he guessed right or it was right in his zone," Jackson said. "Either way, he hit it for a home run. But I threw my pitch with conviction and it was the pitch I wanted to throw. Sometimes it happens in a game." Allen Craig reached in the fifth after second basemans Darwin Barneys throw on the back end of a double-play attempt went to the Cardinals dugout. Molina drove a 1-2 pitch just over the outfield wall to improve to 9 for 15 with three homers against Jackson. Jay went to third on a hit-and-run with Daniel Descalso singling to right and scored on a hit from Pete Kozma to give St. Louis a 4-1 lead. Westbrook retired the Cubs in order in the first and seventh innings, allowing at least one runner to reach in the five innings between. He faced the minimum in three of those five innings. Two runners were erased on inning-ending double plays and Luis Valbuena was caught stealing on a pitch out for the first out of the third. "He was good," Molina said of Westbrook. "That sinker was moving a lot." Westbrook lasted just five innings in his return Friday at Miami. He gave up five runs (three earned) on eight hits in a loss. "I felt good," Westbrook said. "I was throwing a really good sinker, tonight. I was locating it a lot better than the last start." Anthony Rizzo opened the second with a single and went to third when second baseman Matt Carpenters throw to start a potential double play sailed over the Kozmas head and into leftfield. Rizzo tagged up on a sacrifice fly from Barney and scored after knocking the ball out of Molinas glove. Carpenter singled to start the first and scored on Craigs hit to centre. NOTES: The Cardinals earned at least a split of the four-game series. ... Jacksons exit with one out in the fifth snapped a five-game streak in which the Cubs rotation recorded a quality start and a seven-game stretch in which it went at least six innings. ... Craig is hitting .431 with runners in scoring position. ... Rizzos single in the second ended a 0-10 streak. ... Molina was assessed with his third error of the year for dropping the ball in the second and allowing Ryan Sweeney and Welington Castillo to advance. He had three all of last season. ... Major League Baseball made two scoring changes from the Cardinals game June 11 at the New York Mets. It rewarded Molina a double rather than an error as originally scored and changed an error assessed to 3B David Freese to a hit for David Wright. Wholesale China Jerseys . Irving scored 23 points, Tristan Thompson had 20 points and 10 rebounds and the Cavaliers beat the Denver Nuggets 117-109 on Friday night. Cheap Jerseys .500 on the season. The Jets are now 0-5-1 in the second game of back-to-backs. The game started the same way the Vancouver game started the night before, with the Jets taking the first two penalties of the game and killing off the first, but the Oilers getting on the board first, scoring on the second man-advantage. https://www.fakejerseysfromchina.com/ . Bjorn, who had a 36-hole total of 8-under 134, made a testing six-foot putt to save par on the 16th and a birdie on the 17th before bogeying the final hole after a misjudged approach shot. American Kevin Streelman was in second place after shooting a 69. Fake Jerseys China .Y. - Nelson Mandela will be honoured by the New York Yankees with a plaque in Monument Park. Wholesale Jerseys . They had already blown a double-digit lead, fans were hitting the exits, and a long seven-game road trip waited at the end. PHILADELPHIA -- Ryan Mathews helped the Philadelphia Eagles play keep away from Matt Ryan and Atlantas high-powered offense.After disappearing from the game plan the past two weeks, Mathews ran like a guy who was tired of watching from the sideline. He had a season-best 108 yards rushing and two touchdowns while the Eagles piled up 208 yards on the ground.The suddenly successful rushing attack allowed the Eagles to control time of possession by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, forcing the leagues top-scoring offense to be spectators for much of the day.The result was a 24-15 win over the Falcons on Sunday.We did what we needed to do to win, Mathews said. I know the linemen love run blocking. They played great. They did all they could to open up holes for us. We knew it was going to be a hard game. I said throughout the week if any of us got the ball, we were giving 100 percent.Mathews had just nine carries in the past two games while 33-year-old Darren Sproles took over as the featured back. But coach Doug Pederson made a point to establish the run behind Mathews right from the start.Mathews carried seven times for 34 yards on the first drive, taking it in from the 4 for a 7-0 lead. He had a 5-yard TD run in the fourth quarter and also scored the 2-point conversion.I had confidence in Ryan to get the job done, Pederson said. His size and strength paid off.Rookie Wendell Smallwood chipped in with 70 yards rushing on 13 carries. Sproles ran twice for 19 yardds and caught eight passes for 57 yards.ddddddddddddWe stepped up when we needed to, Smallwood said. We needed to establish the run game and we did.The running backs made it easier on Carson Wentz and the offense was more balanced -- 39 pass calls, 37 run calls -- than its been in recent games.The backs did a great job and came up with hard, physical runs, center Jason Kelce said. Ryan had a great day. Even when we didnt block guys, he made guys miss.Wentz finished 25 of 36 for 231 yards. He connected six times with Jordan Matthews for 73 yards and six times with Zach Ertz for 55 yards.The run game was huge, Wentz said. It was good to get Ryan the ball, feed him the rock, and he was running angry. That makes my job easier.The Eagles (5-4) snapped a two-game losing streak and remained unbeaten at home in four games.When Ryan, Julio Jones and Co. were on the field, Philadelphias defense held them down. The Falcons came in averaging 33.9 points per game but didnt find the end zone until Ryan threw a 76-yard touchdown pass to Taylor Gabriel in the fourth quarter to give Atlanta (6-4) a 15-13 lead.Jones had 10 catches for 135 yards , but he couldnt make catches to extend drives twice down the stretch.---http://www.pro32.ap.org and -http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow Rob Maaddi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP-RobMaaddi ' ' '