The Cardinals entered tonight looking for a chance to cash in on their first winning streak of the season, Nolan “Norm” Gorman made sure they got off on the right foot.
Norm blasted a two out, opposite field HR for a quick 1-0 lead over Jameson Taillon, his team leading 8th HR of the season.
The Cubs answered immediately vs Flaherty in the bottom half of the 1st, and it could’ve been a lot worse if it wasn’t for the Jack Flaherty double play machine act. The first three batters all reached- Madrigal (1B), Swanson (rbi 2B), Happ (BB). Flaherty would then get Bellinger to roll over to Goldy for the first out before walking Suzuki to bring up Eric Hosmer.
Flaherty would paint a beautiful outside knuckle-curve to get Hosmer to roll into an inning ending, 4-6-3 double-play.
Lars Nootbaar would regain the lead in the 3rd inning, absolutely launching his 3rd HR of the season (108.3mph, 431 feet) into deep RF off of Taillon. After Goldy and Nado both hit singles, three straight walks to Contreras, Donovan (rbi), & DeJong (rbi) would make it a 4-1 Cardinals lead.
And how clutch those walks would turn out to be as Dansby Swanson would connect for a 2R HR off Flaherty in the bottom half of the 3rd, sending it to the basket in RF.
After Flaherty’s evening was finished (5IP, 7H, 3ER, 5bb/3k), freshly recalled, Andre Pallante would take over. Pallante would open up with a 10-pitch k of Hosmer, getting him on 98mph heat. Mervis would then ground out to Pallante, bringing up another freshly recalled player in Christopher Morel.
Morel won the battle, launching a HR to CF to tie things at 4-4.
Pallante’s inning would come to an end on yet another, insane Brendan Donovan play. Donovan would take away a hit from Miguel Amaya on a blooped fly ball to LF, diving full extension to take things to the 7th inning.
Nothing cool happened in the 7th, Kiz would hit a leadoff double just to get stranded at third, along we go.
In his 6th inning of relief, the Cardinals finally jumped on Javier Assad, answering with a huge 2-run 9th.
Pauly Deez would lead things off with his 14th career HR at Wrigley Field (6th coming in the 9th inning), blasting a hanging cutter 104.4mph and 413 feet into the LCF bleachers.
Carl Bean would follow that up with his first triple of the season, sneaking it over Bellinger’s head in CF. The last two triples Carlson has hit have been at Wrigley Field.
Kiz followed that up with yet another double, perfectly placing a bloop over the right-side of the infield and in front of Suzuki in RF to plate Carlson to make it a 6-4 game.
Gio came in and worked a perfect 9th for his second save of the season, needing just 11 pitches to secure the first winning streak of the season for the Cardinals.
The Cardinals look for the sweep tomorrow night, sending Jordan Montgomery (2-4, 3.29) to the mound, as he faces off with another southpaw in Justin Steele (5-0, 1.45). First pitch is scheduled for 6:40pm c/t.
Cheers, Stew