Cubs blast off against Cardinals 13-2 for eleventh straight win
The weekend has barely begun and already it's ruined for the St. Louis Cardinals and their fans who made it up to Chicago.
The Chicago Cubs scored a stunning walk-off victory Thursday night to open this key four-game series.
On Friday, they trotted off — to the tune of 5 home runs — with a crushing 13-2 victory at Wrigley Field.
Here's where things stand: The Cubs have won 11 straight games and are 73-41. They dropped the second-place Cardinals to 14 games behind in the National League Central.
There's plenty of baseball left, but this division race looks to be about over, or at least the dynamic is completely changed because of a dynamic Cubs club.
“Of course we're assured of at least splitting this series,” said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. “I'm certain they came in here wanting to do better than that. So that's a positive right there. But being who they are, they'll throw that game in the wastebasket, come back out and play tomorrow. The momentum is always about your next day's starting pitcher. That's it.”
The Cubs will have Kyle Hendricks and his 2.17 ERA going Saturday against Luke Weaver, who will be making his major-league debut.
Making Friday's victory more impressive was that the Cubs did it without three of their regulars in the lineup, as Maddon gave days off to Dexter Fowler, Jason Heyward and Ben Zobrist.
Stepping up were center fielder Matt Szczur and right fielder Jorge Soler. Szczur was 3-for-4 with 4 runs scored, 2 homers, a double and 3 RBI. He enjoyed the first multihomer game of his career in his first start as a leadoff batter.
Soler was 2-for-4 with a pair of runs, a homer and 2 RBI. It's one thing for bench players such as Szczur to get a start. It's a bigger lift when they produce.
“I think it's great for the ballclub because 25 guys are here, and 25 guys are going to produce, no matter what position you're in,” said Szczur, who has a line of .317/.368/.508 with 5 homers and 22 RBI in 126 at-bats. “Joe mixes, matches. Today, he gave pretty much all his starters a day off. We're still able to put up 13 runs. I feel it helps him as well as the players knowing, ‘Hey, we don't have to grind this one out today. We got guys in the lineup who can produce.'”
The Cubs hit Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright early and often, scoring twice in the first inning on doubles by Szczur, Kris Bryant and Addison Russell.
They added five in the second, with the key blast being a 3-run homer by Willson Contreras. Szczur hit a solo homer in the sixth and a 2-run shot in the seventh. Javier Baez got the 4-run seventh going with a 2-run homer.
Cubs ace Jake Arrieta was on the mound. The reigning Cy Young Award winner improved to 14-5 with a 2.55 ERA with 5⅔ innings of 4-hit, 1-run ball.
Errors lengthened the second and fourth innings for Arrieta, who wound up throwing 105 pitches.
“Did a pretty good job, overall, wind blowing out,” Arrieta said. “To limit those guys to one run is a pretty good effort. I would have liked to get deeper into the game. But I did enough to get the win.”
Maddon said he was impressed by Arrieta.
“I thought Jake pitched pretty well,” the manager said. “We kind of put Jake in a bind by not catching the ball. That cost him another inning. I thought Jake pitched better than 5⅔. He had a chance to go more deeply into the game because, uncharacteristically, we missed some plays that we normally make.
“The fastball had that little extra life at the end. The strike-throwing was better. The curveball had great depth. I could honestly say from the side that reminded me of last year, physically.”