photo: Paul Goldschmidt via Zoom (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
The Chicago Cubs offense chipped away at St. Louis Cardinals pitching on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field, collecting eight walks and nine hits, including two home runs, to defeat the visitors, 6-3.
Chicago broke the scoreless tie in the third as Ian Happ took Cardinals starter Daniel Ponce de Leon deep.
The game’s turning point occurred in the top of the fourth, just after Happ’s long ball and just before Ponce de Leon’s exit. St. Louis loaded the bases with no out against Cubs starter Yu Darvish behind three veterans – Paul Goldschmidt singled, Matt Carpenter doubled and Brad Miller walked. But Dylan Carlson, Dexter Fowler and Matt Wieters failed to bring in anyone.
For there, the situation worsened for the Cardinals. In an outing reminiscent of his last start in Minnesota, Ponce could not get through the fourth inning. In that frame, he departed after a walk and an RBI triple. Reliever Seth Elledge walked the bases loaded, but escaped with no further damage.
Again, the Cardinals cut the lead to one in the top of the fifth on an RBI single by Goldschmidt, but almost immediately, Elledge yielded a double and a two-run home run by Kyle Schwarber. The Cubs had a 4-1 lead that felt much larger, as the Cardinals had to secure 12 more outs with basically no one available to pitch other than a parade of recently called up arms.
In his MLB debut, Jesus Cruz yielded the final two Cubs scores on two singles, a double and a sac fly in the seventh. The right-hander became the 12th Cardinal to make his MLB debut in just 11 games and the 10th on this road trip alone.
In the bottom of the frame down 6-1, the Cardinals neutralized the latest pair of Cubs runs starting with an RBI single by Carpenter. But they again were unable to complete what was a potential big inning.
After Monday’s star Brad Miller walked, the bases were loaded with no out. But the starch was taken out of the rally when struggling rookie Dylan Carlson grounded into a bases-loaded double-play as St. Louis’ final run scored.
The Cardinals’ deficit remained three runs the rest of the way.
Ponce de Leon took the loss after yielding two runs on three hits and three walks in 3 1/3 frames. As a staff, the Cardinals fanned 14 Cubs, but yielded eight walks and nine hits, including the pair of long balls.
Goldschmidt paced the offense with three hits and a walk, a run scored and an RBI. Carpenter went 2-for-4, including a double and an RBI. Leadoff man Kolten Wong had a good game with two hits and a walk, but was driven in just once.
On the downside, the offense collectively fanned 12 times and blunted three different threats by grounding into double plays (Wieters, Carlson, Edman). They were just 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
The 5-6 Cardinals have two games remaining in their series and Chicago-only road trip, to be played on Wednesday. They return home for a four-game weekend series against Cincinnati starting Thursday evening.
Tuesday’s games: at Chicago (15-7), 1:20 pm CDT, RHP Jack Flaherty (1-0, 2.57) vs. RHP Alec Mills (2-1, 2.84) (Game 1), TBA vs. TBA (Game 2) FOX Sports Midwest // KMOX
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