Stroman walloped, Goldschmidt extends streak, Cards club Cubs 14-5
Things got off to such a promising start for the Cubs on Friday at Wrigley Field.
After starting pitcher Marcus Stroman breezed through a 1-2-3 first inning, Patrick Wisdom walloped a 3-run homer to left-center in the bottom of the first, staking the Cubs to a 3-0 lead.
With the way Stroman had been trending - he'd allowed just 6 earned runs in his previous 5 starts - it seemed an easy victory was at hand.
Instead, the polar opposite occurred and it was the Cardinals who breezed to a 14-5 triumph.
The Cards grabbed the lead in the third inning on Paul Goldschmidt's 3-run homer and basically put things away with a 5-run fourth.
Stroman (2-5) gave up a career-high 9 runs on 10 hits in just 4 innings and saw his ERA go from 3.95 to 5.32.
"Just didn't pitch good," said Stroman, who has a 9.33 ERA at Wrigley Field this season. "They just beat me up a bit. ... Our offense did enough to get a win, so I've just got to be better."
Stroman had a chance to get out of the third, but Goldschmidt ripped an 88-mph splitter into the right-center field bleachers. The blast extended Goldschmidt's hitting streak to 25 games and his on-base streak to 39.
Manager David Ross and Stroman both said they did not think about pitching around the red-hot Cardinals slugger to get to Nolan Arenado, who came into Friday's game hitting just .202 with 3 HRs since May 8.
"I'm trying to execute really good pitches and get an out," Stroman said. "I'm not trying to load the bases ... with Nolan Arenado coming up. I just didn't execute my pitch and he put a better swing on it."
Said Ross: "We've got a close game, wind blowing out, there's gonna be a lot of runs scored. Start putting a lot of baserunners on base that's never good. ... I've got a lot of confidence in Stro."
Arenado, by the way, flew out to center to end the inning.
The Cubs (22-30) still trailed just 4-3 at that point, but Stroman gave up 4 straight two-out hits in the fourth (including a 3-run HR by Nolan Gorman) and the Cardinals (30-22) posted their 10th win in 14 games.
Goldschmidt's hitting streak is tied for the third longest in franchise history since 1963. Twenty of his last 33 hits have gone for extra bases.
The Cubs had a chance to get back in it in the fifth when they loaded the bases with nobody out, but Wisdom struck out and a tagging Rafael Ortega (3-for-4, BB) was then thrown out at home after Jason Heyward's shallow flyball to right field was caught.
Frank Schwindel reached base in all four plate appearances and also pitched the ninth inning. He retired the first two batters, but then allowed back-to-back home runs.
Wisdom now has 12 home runs and 31 RBI. Seven of his HRs have come since May 15 (19 games).
The Cubs and Cards play a doubleheader Saturday, with games beginning at 12:20 p.m. and 6:15 p.m.