Surprising, surging Cubs beat Cardinals 13-5

The Chicago Cubs went from a deep hole after their first road trip to playing for first place on Sunday Night Baseball.

Granted, it's early May, and the standings in the National League Central are bound to shuffle for the coming months.

But the kind of turnaround the Cubs have staged surprised even manager Joe Maddon.

“I didn't really anticipate this,” he said before the Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 13-5 on a beautiful Sunday evening at Wrigley Field. “I think I talked about (making up) one game a week, which is normally the way you do it. You normally don't have this quick rebound under these circumstances. But everything came together for us rather quickly.

“We played a lot better pitching wise. But whenever I've been with a team that's gotten in a hole, I've always thought about one game a week. Try to pick up one a week and then you get back to normalcy. But it's incredible how quickly we've been able to get our feet back on the ground.”

Starting pitching and an improved bullpen keyed the Cubs' resurgence, which began after a 2-7 start to their season-opening road trip. The Cubs are now 19-12, and they took over first place from the Cardinals (20-14) by one-half game with a series sweep. Overall, the Cubs have won seven games in a row, and they're are unbeaten in their last eight series (7-0-1).

While some fans and media members may have buried the Cubs' chances in early April, the team stayed with its approach.

“We're playing the game with a lot of energy, I'll take it,” Maddon said. “The pitching again has set the tone.”

Left-hander Jose Quintana (4-1) has been a big part of the resurgence. Beginning April 11, he had 3 straight starts of at least 7 innings before going 5.2 innings on April 28.

Against the Cardinals, he worked 6 innings, giving up 8 hits and 2 runs, both in the sixth. It was his fourth quality start of the season.

“We don't focus on the past,” he said. “We try to play the game one game at a time. At this point we feel really good. We're playing good, and our focus right now is to play every single game at a time. We're doing good. Try to stay there and keep playing.”

The Cubs opened the scoring against Adam Wainwright in the second when Willson Contreras launched an opposite-field home run to right center.

They got 2 more in the fifth when Contreras led off with a walk and came home on Jason Heyward's triple past Cardinals center fielder Dexter Fowler. David Bote's sacrifice fly brought Heyward home.

The Cardinals crept to within 1 run in the sixth. Paul DeJong and Marcell Ozuna singled with one out. After Jose Martinez flied out, Yadier Molina doubled to the wall in center field. Albert Almora Jr. tried for a leaping catch, but he did not time it correctly.

Anthony Rizzo hit a 2-run double for the Cubs in the sixth, with Contreras adding a run-scoring single. The Cubs added on late, with Kris Bryant's grand slam capping a 6-run eighth.

“Why did we have to start 1-6; is that what we started?” Bryant asked. “We've really turned it around since then. Our pitchers have been great. Our at-bats have been great. Defense. Everything has really been clicking for us. This is the type of baseball that's super fun to be a part of.

“It was a weird start to the year. We all knew we had talent in here. Our pitching staff is very talented. We knew they were going to turn around, and they did.”

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