Cubs motor onto sweep of Cardinals thanks to ‘The Ian Happ Game'

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Before Sunday night's game, Joe Maddon had a simple message on Ian Happ:

"Let's see what happens tonight. He's gonna get hot again. That's just who he is. That's his DNA.

"If you're concerned about him, don't be."

The rookie backed up his manager's vote of confidence, leading the Cubs to a sweep of the Cardinals with a 7-6 victory that could go down as "The Ian Happ Game."

Happ gave the Cubs the lead with a homer just inside the foul pole in the third inning. After the Cardinals came right back with four runs of their own, Happ took matters into his own hands and gave the Cubs the lead again with his second homer in as many innings.

This one was a two-out shot into the right-field bleachers and sent the 39,868 fans at Wrigley Field into an absolute frenzy.

The only louder cheer than the response to Happ's second homer was when he was pushed out of the dugout by his teammates and responded to the crowd's demand for a curtain call.

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Happ stroked 842 feet worth of homers, averaging 109 mph off the bat between the two blasts.

"The guy's got tools, man," Maddon said. "He's got tools and he's got a good baseball mind. Yeah, he's gonna strike out and yeah he's gonna look bad sometimes, but man, when it all comes together, you're really gonna enjoy it."

Three of Happ's four big-league homers have come against the Cardinals and he raised his OPS nearly 100 points on the evening (from .748 to .839).

Jon Jay and Albert Almora Jr. chipped in off the bench with pinch-hit RBI knocks to account for the rest of the Happ-less (not hapless) Cubs offense.

The Cubs' sweep was their first of the Cardinals at Wrigley Field since April 2006.

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