Another new Cubs pitcher shuts down St. Louis
New pitchers just seem to work better against St. Louis.
On Tuesday, rookie Javier Assad worked four scoreless innings in his major league debut. Then Wednesday, it was Luke Farrell coming up from Iowa to keep the Cardinals under control as the Cubs won 7-1 at Wrigley Field.
Farrell allowed just 1 run over 4⅓ innings. The Cubs tied this five-game series 2-2 with one more left on Thursday afternoon.
Farrell isn't a young pitcher moving up through the ranks. He's a 31-year-old veteran who has played for five teams, including the Cubs in 2018.
"I missed it. I missed it so much," Farrell said. "I love it here. I worked my tail off to get back here and wanted to make the most of it. It was a great night."
He's the son of former Blue Jays and Red Sox manager John Farrell, who coached David Ross and Jon Lester when Boston won the 2013 World Series. Farrell said he was there to help his dad celebrate.
"I remember being next to Kenny Chesney going out to storm the field," Farrell said. "Baseball's so amazing like that. It's such a small community, even though it is so big. It's hard not to be grateful, especially when things come full circle."
Ross brushed off the interesting connection between Wednesday's game and his first World Series as a player.
"Luke's his own man," Ross said. "I don't want to take anything away from that. That was a really nice job.
"I thought Luke set the tone coming right at them, no walks tonight. Really impressive, that makes the manager really happy."
Farrell wasn't having an especially good season in Iowa, posting a 3-4 record and 5.03 ERA. But he has pitched in the majors every year since 2017, including Minnesota last season and Texas from 2019-20. The former Northwestern hurler appeared in 20 games for the '18 Cubs.
With one out in the fifth inning, Farrell gave up a home run to St. Louis leadoff man Lars Nootbaar and Ross made the switch to Rowan Wick after Farrell had thrown 71 pitches.
Farrell avoided some trouble. After giving up a pair of singles in the third, the Cardinals had two on with two out; on a 3-2 pitch to Nolan Arenado, home plate umpire John Libka ruled Arenado did not check his swing on a pitch low and outside.
Arenado exploded, immediately got in Libka's face and was ejected for the seventh time in his career. Replays showed Arenado had a good argument that he held up, but it was obviously a break for the Cubs, with the inning over instead of bases loaded.
On offense, the Cubs scored 3 runs in the second off Miles Mikolas, with Nelson Velazquez smacking an RBI double off the wall. Zach McKinstry added a 2-run homer in the seventh.
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