Cardinals Hammer Cubs 17-1 in Wrigley Field Rout

The Cardinal Chronicle
Cardinals Hammer Cubs 17-1 in Wrigley Field Rout
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

The St. Louis Cardinals did not just beat the Chicago Cubs on Friday afternoon.

They emptied the toolbox on them.

In the opener of a holiday weekend series at Wrigley Field, the Cardinals broke loose for 17 runs on 17 hits and rolled to a 17-1 win over the Cubs. It was the kind of offensive eruption St. Louis had been waiting for, especially after too many nights recently when the bats had gone cold, missed chances, or left strong pitching unsupported.

There was nothing quiet about this one.

The Cardinals scored in six straight innings, hit three home runs, drove in 16 runs, and turned a division road game into a one-sided statement. Nathan Church delivered the first big swing. Masyn Winn added the loudest one. Bryan Torres came off the bench and joined the party with a homer of his own.

And while the offense will take most of the headlines, Andre Pallante made sure Chicago never had a real chance to answer.

Pallante gave the Cardinals 5 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing five hits, walking one and striking out two. He threw 102 pitches, 61 for strikes, and kept the Cubs off the board while St. Louis kept adding on.

That mattered.

The Cardinals did not need Pallante to be perfect with a 17-run avalanche behind him, but they did need him to keep the game from getting sloppy early. He did exactly that. Chicago put runners aboard in the first inning, but Pallante escaped. The Cubs had scattered traffic again later, but he continued to work through it, lean on contact, and keep the ball on the ground.

It was not flashy.

It was effective.

And on a day when the Cardinals’ offense finally exploded, Pallante gave the game structure.

The first inning passed without a run, though St. Louis had a chance when JJ Wetherholt singled and moved up after a Chicago error. The Cardinals did not cash it in, but the missed opportunity did not linger long.

The second inning opened the floodgates.

José Fermín doubled, Blaze Jordan reached on an infield single, and Nathan Church stepped in with two aboard. Church battled through the at-bat, then drove a three-run home run to right field, giving St. Louis a 3-0 lead.

That swing set the tone for the afternoon.

Church has made a habit lately of delivering important swings, and this one came at a perfect time. The Cardinals were facing a Cubs team that came into the series hot, playing at home, and looking to keep building separation in the National League Central race. A quick three-run punch changed the feel of the game immediately.

The Cardinals did not stop there.

In the third, Iván Herrera scored on a Nelson Velázquez sacrifice fly. Walker moved to third on the play, and Masyn Winn followed with a single to right, scoring Walker and stretching the lead to 5-0. Fermín then doubled to deep center, bringing home Winn and making it 6-0.

By then, the Cardinals had David Peterson on the ropes.

In the fourth, they knocked him out of the game.

Herrera reached again, Jordan Walker doubled, Velázquez walked, and Alec Burleson came through with a two-run single to right. That pushed the Cardinals’ lead to 8-0.

Then Winn unloaded.

The Cardinals shortstop launched a three-run home run to left-center field, his fourth homer of the season, and suddenly St. Louis led 11-0.

That was the blow that turned a strong start into a runaway.

Winn finished 2-for-4 with a home run, four RBIs and two runs scored. He has had stretches this season where the offense has come and gone, but Friday was a reminder of how much damage he can do when the bat is part of the equation. His glove is already valuable. When he is driving in four runs at Wrigley Field, that changes the bottom half of the lineup entirely.

The Cardinals added three more in the fifth.

Blaze Jordan scored when Velázquez drew a bases-loaded walk. Burleson then singled to deep right, scoring Walker and Herrera, pushing the lead to 14-0.

Burleson quietly had one of the most productive afternoons on the roster. He went 2-for-5 and drove in four runs. He did not homer. He did not need to. He simply kept cashing in chances, and in a game where the Cardinals finally stacked traffic inning after inning, that kind of production was exactly what they needed.

Herrera added two more runs in the sixth with a single to center, scoring Church and Jordan. That made it 16-0 and gave Herrera a three-hit, two-RBI afternoon.

Herrera reached base four times, scored three runs and continued to be one of the steady offensive pieces in the middle of the Cardinals’ lineup. On a day when almost everyone contributed, his fingerprints were still all over the win.

Then came Torres in the seventh.

Pinch-hitting for Winn, Torres drove a solo home run to right field, his fourth homer of the season, extending the lead to 17-0. At that point, the game had moved well beyond comfortable. It had become the kind of day that lets a club exhale, empty the bench a little, and enjoy a rare division blowout on the road.

The final offensive line was hard to miss.

St. Louis scored 17 runs on 17 hits. Herrera had three hits. Jordan had three hits and scored three runs. Burleson drove in four. Winn drove in four. Church homered and drove in three. Velázquez drove in two without recording a hit. Fermín doubled twice and drove in a run. Torres homered off the bench.

That is not one player carrying the afternoon.

That is a lineup rolling over.

For a Cardinals club that had been grinding through too many quiet offensive nights, that was the most encouraging part. The production came from everywhere. The top of the order reached. The middle drove in runs. The bottom created traffic. The bench added on.

That is how an offense is supposed to look when it is right.

Chicago finally scored in the seventh when Pedro Ramírez tripled and Alex Bregman doubled him home. That was all the Cubs could get. Max Rajcic handled the final stretch after Pallante exited, allowing one run while striking out three.

The Cubs finished with one run on seven hits.

That mattered too.

The Cardinals were not just hot at the plate. They kept a dangerous Chicago lineup from making any kind of push. Pete Crow-Armstrong had a hit. Bregman had two hits and the lone RBI. Michael Busch and Carson Kelly also had hits. But the Cubs never found the crooked inning, never turned the afternoon into a back-and-forth game, and never made the Cardinals sweat.

That was a welcome change.

This was the first game of a three-game weekend series, and the Cardinals could not have opened it much better. They came into Chicago after taking two of three in Atlanta, including an 11-5 comeback win Thursday night, and followed it with their most lopsided win of the season.

That is a serious two-day offensive response.

After scoring 11 against Atlanta on Thursday, the Cardinals put up 17 against Chicago on Friday. That is 28 runs in two games, and for a club that had spent much of the previous week trying to find consistent offense, that is more than a small development.

It may not mean everything is fixed.

Baseball does not work that way.

But it does mean the Cardinals have found some thunder again.

The bigger picture still matters. St. Louis needs pitching stability. The bullpen has been tested heavily. The lineup still has to prove it can carry this production forward and not simply have one wild weekend burst. But Friday was not a day for overcomplicating things.

The Cardinals beat the Cubs by 16 runs at Wrigley Field.

That will spend.

This was a division game. This was a road game. This was a Cubs team that had been rolling. The Cardinals did not sneak out with a win. They took control early, kept piling on, and never let Chicago into the ballgame.

Church started it.

Winn broke it open.

Burleson cashed in.

Herrera kept the pressure on.

Jordan kept reaching.

Torres put one more ball into the seats.

Pallante took care of the rest.

For one afternoon in Chicago, the Cardinals looked like the club doing the hunting.

And the Cubs looked like the ones waiting for it to end.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
Preserving the Past, Promoting the Present, and Projecting the Future.

Check out The Cardinal Chronicle for more St. Louis Cardinals coverage, daily farm reports, prospect updates and old-school baseball commentary:
www.cardinalchronicle.com

Photo Credit: MLB