Arrieta Lifts Cubs Past White Sox, Pirates Rally To Down Cardinals

Jake Arrieta is taking a few days off for the All-Star break. But on Sunday, it looked like he shouldn't be. Arrieta did it all for the Cubs, limiting the cross town rival White Sox to just two hits while pitching a complete game and hitting a home run of his own to send the Cubs into the break on a high note with a 3-1 win.

Arrieta (10-5), who struck out nine, including all three batters in the ninth inning, pitched his second complete game of the season and goes into the All-Star break having now already matched his season high for wins.

While his teammates Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant will head to Cincinnati for the All-Star Game, Arrieta will get a break to spend some time with family. But he's fine with that -- more about how his teammates view him than the All-Star voting fans.

"Those individual accolades are great," Arrieta said. "But I know that my teammates, they can count on me to come up big for us. I thought about that stuff a little bit several days ago, but you know, it's out of sight, out of mind now. I'm actually looking forward to having a couple days off, doing some things with the kids."

Whatever All-Star voters think of Arrieta, Cubs manager Joe Maddon said Sunday's performance showed he's among the league's best.

"His stuff is definitely in the elite level of all major league pitchers, there's no question," Maddon said. "He was a strike thrower today, his curve ball is ridiculously one of the best ... the slider you saw. I mean, it was just really, really well done. Hits homers."

Rally Lifts Pirates Past Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals head into the All-Star break with the NL Central lead and the best record in the majors. The Pittsburgh Pirates, however, have all the momentum.

Gregory Polanco capped another late rally, driving in Jung Ho Kang with two outs in the 10th inning to lift the Pirates to a 6-5 victory over the Cardinals on Sunday night.

St. Louis took a 5-3 lead in the top of the 10th on a two-run double by Randal Grichuk off Arquimedes Caminero (1-1). Pittsburgh, which won in 14 innings on a homer by Andrew McCutchen on Saturday, did it again 24 hours later against St. Louis All-Star closer Trevor Rosenthal (1-2).

Starling Marte brought Pittsburgh within a run with an RBI single. Francisco Cervelli tied it with a single and Polanco followed two batters later with a looper to right that sent Kang streaking across the plate and the rest of the Pirates streaming out of the dugout after their second walk-off win in two nights.

Sunday, July 12 Scoreboard

Oakland 2, Cleveland 0

New York Mets 5, Arizona 3

Miami 8, Cincinnati 1

Tampa Bay 4, Houston 3

New York Yankees 8, Boston 6

Washington 3, Baltimore 2

Kansas City 11, Toronto 10

Minnesota 7, Detroit 1

Chicago Cubs 3, Chicago White Sox 1

San Diego 2, Texas 1

San Francisco 4, Philadelphia 2

Los Angeles Angels 10, Seattle 3

Los Angeles Dodgers 4, Milwaukee 3

Colorado 11, Atlanta 3

Pittsburgh 6, St. Louis 5 (F/10)

Monday, July 13 Schedule

No games scheduled

Tuesday, July 14 (Time Central)

All-Star Game

American League vs. National League, 6:30 p.m.