Vintage Hendricks performance keeps Cubs rolling in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS — The Cubs' surprisingly important series in St. Louis began with a random, hilarious story from Craig Counsell.
Longtime major-league manager Jim Leyland, who got his start as Tony LaRussa's third base coach for the White Sox in the 1980s, is being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 21. Counsell played for Leyland with the Florida Marlins, so he was asked for a favorite memory before Friday's game.
“My favorite story about Jim Leyland is when I got traded to the Marlins (in 1997),” Counsell said. “It was my first day there and I came out to take early batting practice, because I'm a rookie and I want to work hard and all that stuff.
“After I took early batting practice out there, (Leyland) said, 'Don't ever do that again. If I have to watch you hit every day, you will never play.'”
Maybe it was an appropriate tale for the 2024 Cubs, since they just endured more than two months of offensive struggles. But they arrived in St. Louis winning four in a row, six of the last seven, with every victory coming by at least 4 runs.
The Cubs won again 5-1 on Friday. The streak of consecutive scoreless innings by their pitchers ended at 32 when Hunter Bigge gave up 2 walks and an RBI single in the ninth.
Friday's starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks is renowned for his success against St. Louis. Heading into this game, he was 13-4 with a 2.62 ERA for his career.
But no one expected a performance like this. Not only did Hendricks toss 7 scoreless innings, the Cardinals never put a runner at second base against him. With 5 hits allowed, 1 walk and a couple of Cubs double plays, the Cardinals had nothing close to a scoring threat. They were 0-for-0 against Hendricks with runners in scoring position.
Willson Contreras singled in the first inning and was an easy out trying to stretch it to a double. In the fourth the Cubs finished the inning with a rare combination — Hendricks struck out Paul Goldschmidt swinging and Miguel Amaya threw out Alec Burleson trying to steal second for a double play.
Cubs hitters chipped away against Sonny Gray, the Cardinals' most effective starter, and eventually piled up 13 hits. They scored runs in the third on a Nico Hoerner groundout, in the fourth on a Dansby Swanson RBI single and in the seventh on a Hoerner sacrifice fly. David Bote provided some cushion with a pinch-hit, 2-run double in the eighth.
The once-slumping Swanson went 2-for-4 for the third straight game. Amaya collected a pair of hits for the second time in three starts. In a nutshell the same offense on display in Baltimore carried over to St. Louis.
“I think what we did in well in Baltimore was move the line, consistent good at-bats throughout the lineup, throughout the 27 outs,” Counsell said.
One bit of bad news was reliever Luke Little left the mound after throwing four pitches to start the eighth. He left with a shoulder injury, Counsell said.
Willowbrook High School grad Chris Roycroft started the eighth inning for the Cardinals and was charged with 2 runs.
Counsell did continue his welcome-to-the-Marlins story. For the record, it was not Counsell's first day in the major leagues. He played in four games for Colorado before getting traded.
“I was a little taken aback when (Leyland) said that, of course,” Counsell said. “But he wasn't going to be easy on you, he was going to be tough on you. So I didn't take early batting practice anymore.”
Counsell ended up scoring the winning run in Game 7 of the World Series that year, as well as driving in the tying run in the bottom of the ninth against Cleveland. So Leyland's coaching must have paid off.
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