Anthony Rizzo's first career walk-off homer gives Cubs 4-2 win over Cardinals

What an exciting game today as the Cubs beat the Cardinals 4-2 after Anthony Rizzo's 2-run walk-off homer in the 10th inning.  The Cubs also take the series after winning 2 out of 3 games this weekend. 

Anthony Rizzo came through with his first career walk-off homer to give the Cubs the win against the Cardinals on Sunday (photo from cubs.com)

Paul Maholm started for the Cubs and allowed one run on four hits and also walked four batters and struck out five over 6.2 innings pitched.  The one run Maholm allowed was in the seventh inning and then he was pulled with the bases loaded.  Manny Corpas came into the game and got the last out.

Maholm set a record for the first Cubs left-handed pitcher since 1900 to have six straight start at least six innings long and allowing one or less runs in each.

Paul Maholm received a no-decision today, but set a Cubs franchise record in today's win against the Cardinals (photo from Chicago Tribune)

The Cardinals tied the game at 2 when Carlos Beltran hit a homer against relief pitcher Shawn Camp in the 8th inning.

Starlin Castro singled in the 10th inning and then Rizzo belted an 0-1 pitch into the left field bleachers for his first career walk-off homer.  James Russell earned his second straight win in relief in two consecutive days, which is his 5th of the season. 

The Cubs now have a record of 14 wins and 9 losses in July and are having their first winning July since they were 18-9 in 2009.  Last season, they were 9-17 this month.

Cubs manager Dale Sveum said, "Going into the second half, it was a goal to win a lot of baseball games and do whatever we could to get back to .500.  Obviously, it's an uphill battle to do it when we're, what, 17 games under .500.  Besides a pretty good hiccup against St. Louis [last weekend] against a really good offensive team, it's been a pretty good run of playing good baseball and winning a lot of games."

In other Cubs news, Ryan Dempster threw a side session today and for the time being, is still scheduled to start on Tuesday against the Pirates.  When Sveum was asked if he was looking forward to Wednesday, August 1st (after the trade deadline passes), he said, "Well, Tuesday at 3 o’clock will be fine, too.  Not that I know the time [of the Trade Deadline] or everything.”  Haha!

Pitcher Ryan Dempster looks onto the field from the Cubs dugout during Sunday's game against the Cardinals (photo from Chicago Tribune)

The Cubs will play the first game of a three-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, starting tomorrow night at 7:05 CT at Wrigley Field.  Newly acquired pitcher Justin Germano will start for the Cubs.  Germano was acquired from the Boston Red Sox, where he was a Triple-A starter.  He made his Cubs debut last Saturday against the Cardinals and gave up one run on five hits over three innings.