Cubs offense rolls in blowout win over Cards |
CHICAGO - As bad as things have been for the Chicago Cubs (18-19) lately, they are still in a winnable division and are only three games out of first. That is one of the few positives to take away from this team right now, and hopefully, things will start to get better sooner rather than later. Already with a series loss against their arch Rival the St. Louis Cardinals (13-25), the Cubs turned to their stopper Justin Steele in hopes of avoiding a sweep.
Steele has been nothing short of amazing since last July, and he was going to have to be amazing yet again as the Cardinals sent Jordan Montgomery to the mound. Say what you want about Montgomery, but he has been the Cardinal's best starter this season, and in three starts against the Cubs in 2022, Montgomery allowed 0ER in 22 innings. Steele wasn't as crisp as he typically is, and you could argue that this was his worst start of the season. Even with that, the left-hander still gave the Cubs six strong innings of three-run ball. He allowed three walks and struck out three, but if that is a bad start, I'm sure most Cubs fans would sign up for that all day. His presence on the mound rubs off on the other eight guys in the field as the Cubs used an offensive wave to get back on track and downed the Redbirds 10-4. For the first time in a while, Steele allowed a first-inning run, with Paul Goldschmidt picking up a one-out single and racing home on the Nolan Arenado triple to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. Like we have seen far too many times in this series, the Cubs have been unable to come away with a clutch hit, and after loading the bases in the second and coming away with nothing, those struggles continue to do them in. Given new life by getting out of that inning, the Cardinals added to their lead in the third when Willson Contreras came through with a two-out RBI single to put the Cardinals in front 2-0. It's not too often you score first on Steele, but to have a multiple-run lead on him is something most teams would consider a win. Once the third inning got underway, the Cubs suddenly figured out Montgomery, which started with a Dansby Swanson double. That was followed by a nice two-out rally with Seiya Suzuki getting the Cubs on the board with an RBI double while the Patrick Wisdom homer gave the Cubs the lead for good, 3-2. For Wisdom, he has been stuck in a prolonged slump, but he still is tied for the league lead in homers following that shot. Wisdom's got the power! 💪@PatrickWisdom5 pic.twitter.com/n5E6lWXY75 “It’s exciting,” Wisdom said. “You can kind of see the excitement, the emotion come out with all of us when we come through. We have a great lineup and I think no one was, in a sense, panicking about it. “We knew what we had to do to come through, and that’s just staying true to who we are as hitters and stick to our plan.” After Steele pitched into and out of trouble in the fourth, the Cubs put the peddle to the floor and began to add on in a big way. A Trey Mancini walk to start the fourth gave the Cubs a baserunner, while Yan Gomes returned from the Concussion IL to belt his sixth homer of the season to stretch that lead to 5-2. Guess who's back, back again... “We’d take this style of win every day,” said Gomes, who was activated from the injured list prior to the game. “But I think what’s consistent is our ability to put guys on, keep putting the pressure on. I think we just stick with it. Hits are gonna come. Today, hits came.” The Cubs added another run in the fifth on a Wisdom double play ball to chase Montgomery as the lefty surrendered six runs in five innings of work. Despite holding a comfortable lead, the Cubs entered the sixth feeling as if they needed more offense and knowing the Cardinals wouldn't go away quietly. A one-out walk to Juan Yepez didn't help, nor did consecutive singles by Paul DeJong and Lars Nootbaar as the Nootbaar knock pulled the Cardinals within 6-3. Steele managed to finish off the sixth without allowing further damage and put himself in a position to improve to 6-0 on the season with another quality start. One of the many reasons the Cardinals have gotten off to such a poor start is their struggling bullpen. You would've never guessed that in this series, as the Cardinals pen has been impressive in all three games allowing just one run in over 10 innings. Given that workload, you had to think the Cubs were due to crack through, and that they did in this one as they pushed across four runs in three innings off the Cardinals pen. Three of those runs came off a pair of RBI doubles from Christopher Morel and Swanson in the sixth as the Cubs blew the game wide open 9-3. 6th-inning surge! ⚡ pic.twitter.com/2yI8BWVDQ2 Morel added another RBI in the seventh, using an RBI single to cap off the scoring for the Cubs, with Chicago leading 10-3. Morel check: 🔥 pic.twitter.com/cSLfjjRXqh That score would hold until the ninth inning when Keegan Thompson was looking to work around a leadoff DeJong single. For the most part, Thompson did what he was paid to do, but Tommy Edman still got the best of him and used an RBI single to push home the game's final run, but it still wasn't enough as the Cubs took care of business 10-4. The Cubs' offense erupted for 14 hits, with Gomes leading the way with three. You also had multi-hit efforts from Morel, Ian Happ, Swanson, and Suzuki, as everyone but Nick Madrigal recorded a hit.
It's @Yan_AGomes! pic.twitter.com/4ktwM11tD1
