St. Louis Cardinals Game Recap – Saturday, September 5, 2020

photo: Adam Wainwright via Zoom (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)

On Saturday, the St. Louis Cardinals claimed their first doubleheader sweep at Wrigley Field since August 2002 as the pitching, led by Adam Wainwright, held the Cubs to three runs over 14 innings.



Saturday, September 5, 2020 – Cardinals 4 at Cubs 2 (Game 1, seven innings)

In the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader at Wrigley Field, the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Chicago Cubs 4-2, behind solid pitching from veteran right hander Adam Wainwright. Wainwright tossed 6 1/3 innings and yielded two runs on six hits for a quality start.  His only blemish was two long balls off the bat of Ian Happ, who has hit Wainwright well in the past.  The 39-year old fanned six Cubs and walked only one.

Giovanny Gallegos relieved with one out and one on in the seventh inning, beginning with Happ at the plate.  Gallegos retired Happ, and after a Tommy Edman fielding error put the next hitter on base, Gallegos fanned Anthony Rizzo to end the game.  Wainwright earned his fourth win of the season and Gallegos his third save.

Though the Redbirds initially fell behind 1-0, the offense surged in the third and fourth innings to take a 4-1 lead.  In the third, Kolten Wong and Edman led off the inning with singles.  Brad Miller walked to load the bases and Paul DeJong drove in Wong on a force out.  Yadier Molina drew a walk to reload the bases and Matt Carpenter walked to plate Edman for the second run of the inning.

In the fourth, Lane Thomas led off with a double and Wong followed with a single.  Edman plated Thomas on a sac fly. Wong later scored the second run on a single by DeJong.  Wong went 2-for-4 as the only Cardinal with multiple hits.


Cardinals 5, Cubs 1 (Game 2, seven innings)

In the second game of the twin bill, a makeup contest in which St. Louis was the home team, the Cardinals blew past the Cubs 5-1 on the strength of long balls by Paul DeJong and Tyler O’Neill.  Both home runs came in the second inning, as DeJong first blasted a solo shot to left field on the first pitch he saw.  After Lane Thomas drew a walk, O’Neill thumped a two-run home run to right center to give the Redbirds the 3-0 lead.

The Cardinals added to their lead in the third inning on consecutive singles by Tommy Edman, Paul Goldschmidt, and Brad Miller.  In the fourth, O’Neill led off with a double to center, and advanced to third on a ground ball force out by Matt Wieters.  Harrison Bader’s sac fly to right plated O’Neill to increase the Redbirds lead to 5-0.  O’Neill was 2-for-3 as the only Cardinal with multiple hits.

The pitching in this second game was a bullpen effort.  Austin Gomber started and pitched 2 2/3 solid innings.  The left hander allowed only one hit, struck out five and walked three.  Ryan Helsley relieved with two outs in the third and tossed 1 1/3 relief innings.  Helsley gave up a leadoff single to Nico Hoerner in the fifth.  Genesis Cabrera relieved and sent Hoerner to third base on two wild pitches.  Hoerner later scored on a ground out with the run charged to Helsley.

Cabrera got two outs in the fifth before being pulled for John Gant, who fanned Javy Baez to end the inning.  Gant returned to toss a scoreless sixth.  Andrew Miller, fresh off the injured list, retired all three batters in the seventh to close out the day.

The sweep of the doubleheader by the Cardinals puts them one game over .500 with a record of 16-15.  St. Louis is now 2.5 games back of the Cubs in second place in the NL Central, with two more games to go in the five-game series that ends on Monday.

Sunday’s game:  vs. Cubs at 6:08 p.m. CT.  Dakota Hudson (1-2, 2.77) vs. Jon Lester (2-1, 5.11), ESPN/KMOX


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