Red-hot Cardinals silence the Cubs |
CHICAGO - Say what you want about the St. Louis Cardinals (44-53) and the season they are having. They are still the Cardinals, and you had to think they would turn it around at some point. While they may not make the playoffs, they are too talented not to play better and came into Wrigley Field on Thursday riding a five-game winning streak.
Not only were they one of the hottest teams in baseball, but they are starting to pitch much better as a team which has been their downfall this season. The same can't be said about the Chicago Cubs (45-51), as their season continues to be a mystery. Despite being the only team with a positive run differential in their division, the Cubs are in third place and could fall to fourth by the end of next week. What carried them in the first half was their pitching, and through seven games to start the second half, their pitching has let them down. That included another rough outing from Marcus Stroman, who has now had two terrible outings in a row against the Cardinals. Granted, last time, he had a blister issue, and this time, it was just him not having his best start as he failed to make it through four innings in what was a 7-2 series-opening win for the Red Birds. The MLB leader in quality starts lasted just 3 2/3 in this one and was charged with five runs on seven hits, with four coming as earned. Not only that, but with four walks and four strikeouts, his command was also off, as this was one of those days for Stroman. “Just one of those games where you feel like kind of everything works against you,” Stroman said after the game. “Didn’t help with the walks. Just felt like I was slightly off mechanically, just missing the zone, getting behind in counts. Didn’t get ahead much, and then they put some good swings on balls. “Just one of those games I felt like nothing could go my way and I couldn’t get in a rhythm.” Opposing him on the other side was left-hander Steven Matz who came into the game seeking his first win. Known for having some excellent outings against this Cubs team, Matz gave the Cardinals five very impressive innings where he allowed one run on three hits. He walked one and struck out six as the offense picked him up to give him his first win of 2023. You could right from the start that Stroman didn't have his best stuff as Paul Goldschmidt reached on a one-out single to begin the first. Later on, it was the Cub's defense letting Stroman down as a costly error not only allowed Nolan Arenado to reach but extended the inning for Willson Contreras, who continued to crush his old team with an RBI double to put the Cardinals in front 1-0. St. Louis didn't look back and never trailed in this one. Despite his shaky start to the game, Stroman began to settle in a bit and managed to pitch into and out of trouble to keep things 1-0 entering the fourth. Unfortunately for him, the Cubs offense was ice cold, as Matz looked like a Cy Young winner early on. Holding that 1-0 lead in the fourth, the Cardinal bats came to life and pushed across four runs in their half of the fourth to build a 5-0 lead and chased Stroman in the process. Tyler O'Neill started things off with a double before trotting home on the Jordan Walker homer. A pair of out singles from Lars Nootbaar and Goldschmidt kept the pressure on while the two-run double from Arenado extended the Cardinal's lead to 5-0 as Stroman was finished two batters later. It took the Cubs four innings to finally push a run across, and with the suddenly hot Seiya Suzuki starting the Cubs half of the fourth with a double, the offense was in a great position. Unfortunately, Suzuki stood on second two batters later with two outs until Yan Gomes drove him in with an RBI triple. For Gomes, he made a bit of history as he became the first catcher since 2009 to leg out two triples in the same game. With Michael Rucker now working in place of Stroman, the Cardinals continued to stay aggressive as they wanted to put the Cubs in a hole they couldn't climb out of. A one-out single from Walker gave St. Louis another baserunner while Paul DeJong took Rucker deep for the two-run shot and extended the Cardinal's lead to 7-1. That would be it for them offensively, as Javier Assad took over in the sixth and proceeded to throw four shutout innings. While Assad's effort was great, it didn't matter when the Cubs offense struggled to score, as they were still looking for that crooked number against an excellent bullpen. After Andre Pallante tossed a scoreless sixth, Kyle Leahy took over in the seventh and was greeted by Gomes' second triple of the night to give the Cubs a runner on third with no outs. Christopher Morel would drive him home a few pitches later on a groundout as the Cubs pulled within 7-2. The Cubs continued to keep the pressure on as Patrick Wisdom was hit by a pitch shortly after before being erased on a fielder's choice. A pair of two-out walks to Miguel Amaya and Nico Hoerner loaded the bases for Suzuki, and with one swing, he could have made things interesting. Instead, Suzuki hit one right on the screws only to line out to end the inning as the Cubs wasted a golden opportunity and trailed 7-2. Chicago had one more chance to get things closer, and it came in their final at-bats of the game. A one-out double from Trey Mancini started things off with another two-out walk by Hoerner, putting a pair of runners on. Unfortunately, that was it for the Cubs, as they were unable to do anything with that rally and dropped another series opener 7-2. “There were a lot of pretty standard Major League plays that should have been made behind him,” Ross said in postgame. "And then he’s fighting, a lot of pitches. Some of those mistakes we made cost him, shoot, it felt like 30, 40 pitches. That’s hard to overcome, and then you fatigue at the end. “The O’Neil soft double, that kind of led to that last little bit of runs. You want your starting pitcher to get out there and get in a little rhythm, play good defense behind him. He's getting ground balls all over the place, and unfortunately, we couldn't turn them into outs.” Gomes was responsible for three of the team's six hits in the loss as he was joined by Suzuki, Mancini, and Cody Bellinger. The Cubs will look to even things up Friday when they send Justin Steele to the mound against Jack Flaherty.
