Arenado's late hit gives Cards doubleheader sweep |
ST. LOUIS — Ernie Banks once said, "Let's Play Two," which is exactly what the Chicago Cubs (46-51) and St. Louis Cardinals (50-45) did on Saturday at Busch Stadium. Coming off an ugly game one loss that ended the Cubs' five-game winning streak, the Cubs returned to the field later that night looking to salvage a split with the Cards.
In an effort to do that, the Cubs turned to Javier Assad, who returned from the IL, while the Cardinals countered with Kyle Gibson. Neither pitcher was at their best, with Assad going just 2 1/3 innings and Gibson going four, but in the end, it was the Nolan Arenado two-run single off Porter Hodge in the eighth that lifted the Cardinals to the 5-4 victory and sweep of the Cubs. A big reason for the Cubs' recent success has not only been their ability to score but also to score first, which has kept the pressure off their pitching. They had a chance to do that again in this one, with Michael Busch collecting the first of his three hits with a one-out double in the first, only to be left stranded on the bases. When it came to the Cardinals, it was the long ball that got their offense rolling, with Masyn Wynn leading things off with a solo shot to put St. Louis in front 1-0, while Willson Contreras got into one later to extend their lead to 2-0. Both runs came off of Assad, as you could see the rust of not pitching over the past few weeks. Paul Goldschmidt followed that homer up with a double before advancing to third on the Brendan Donovan double, but Assad managed to wiggle out of trouble without allowing any more damage. Talk about a massive swing in momentum, which the Cubs used to their advantage in the top half of the second. With Dansby Swanson connecting for a one-out single in the top half of the second, it was the Miguel Amaya homer that put the Cubs on the board and brought things back to even. This was Amaya's first homer in nearly two months, and when you look at the lack of production from the catcher position, this was a positive sign. His homer started a string of five consecutive hits, with Pete Crow-Armstrong picking up a double and coming home to score on the Nico Hoerner single, while Busch and Seiya Suzuki added two more singles to extend the Cubs lead to 4-2. Little did they know that those would be the only runs of the game for the Cubs offense, but with most of the damage coming in the first two innings, four runs looked like they would be enough. Three batters into the bottom of the second, the Cardinals were threatening again as the Wynn single looked like it would drive home another run, only to have Suzuki gun down Matt Carpenter at the plate. The Cardinals didn't let that stop them as Burleson connected for a sacrifice fly a few pitches later to pull the Cardinals within 4-3 before the Cubs bullpen took over. Considering how good Gibson was the last time he faced the Cubs, four runs had to be considered a massive win for this team, but the ultimate goal is always to add on. With Christopher Morel leading off the third with a single before advancing to second on a walk, the Cubs had their chances to add on but couldn't come away with the big hit. The same can be said about the Cardinals, who had the Cubs on the ropes with a pair of singles in the bottom of the third, only for Drew Smyly to come away with an inning-ending double play. If you want to talk about a game-changing inning, the fourth inning comes to mind as Hoerner and Busch led the inning off with a pair of singles, with Ian Happ loading the bases with a one-out walk. In search of a massive hit to break the game open, Gibson made the pitches he needed to make and induced a game-ending double play to keep the Cubs off the board. That was the best scoring chance the Cubs had the rest of the way, but with Smyly, Tyson Miller, and Mark Leiter Jr allowing just one baserunner across the next four innings, the Cubs' 4-3 lead was looking better by the minute. In desperate need of some add-on offense, the Cubs kept the pressure on Jojo Romero in the eighth as a one-out David Bote single was followed by a walk to put a pair of runners on again. However, unlike the past week, when the Cubs came through in the clutch, it was the old Cubs offense that showed up. Their inability to grab the big hit kept them off the board again, and they would come back to bite them in the bottom of the eighth. With Porter Hodge now on to pitch, the Cardinals wasted no time putting pressure on the rookie right-hander as a leadoff walk to Contreras was followed by a Goldschmidt double as the Cardinals had a pair of runners in scoring position with no outs. Hodge bounced back to strike out Donovan to put himself one pitch away from getting out of the inning, but with Arenado coming through with the clutch single, it was the Cardinals retaking the lead 5-4 and sending the game to the ninth. For as good as Ryan Helsley has been this season, he has had his struggles against the Cubs, and with Suzuki picking up the one-out single, the Cubs had the tying run on base. Suzuki used his legs to swipe second to get himself into scoring position, but that was as close as he would get as Helsley retired the next two hitters to lock down the save. Chicago came away with 12 hits in the game, with Busch leading the way with three. Hoerner and Suzuki added two hits each as those three accounted for seven hits. The Cubs will look to close out the unofficial first half in style on Sunday when they send Jameson Taillon to the mound against Miles Mikolas.
