ST. LOUIS — On a night of exquisite defense, which winning pitcher Ben Brown never takes for granted, the incomparable Pete Crow-Armstrong shared the spotlight with an unexpected co-star.
Take a bow, Seiya Suzuki. The Cubs’ right fielder made a strong throw to the plate in the fourth inning, too late to deny the Cardinals a run. But it became a rally-snuffing play when Miguel Amaya threw a bullet to second base to cut down Alec Burleson trying to advance on his hit.
That would be the only run allowed by Brown, who faced only two batters over the minimum in seven innings. He retired the side in order five times, squelched the only time the Cardinals had two men on base when Alex Bregman stepped on the bag and fired across the diamond for an inning-ending double play in the sixth, and began and finished his night with seven-pitch innings.
“That was exciting,’’ Brown said. “This is something to build off, but you’re never as good as you think you are and never as bad as you think you are.’’
Suzuki, meanwhile, was merely warming up. In the ninth inning, he charged another base hit by Burleson and uncorked a throw both long and accurate, the ball making a perfect landing in third baseman Bregman’s glove before Ivan Herrera slid into the tag.
Ichiro, someone said only half in jest to Suzuki, who spent most of last season as designated hitter because of the arrival of Kyle Tucker. Suzuki acted almost embarrassed by the comparison to Hall of Fame Ichiro Suzuki (no relation), who had one of the game’s all-time best arms.
But Seiya later admitted, after the crowd around his locker had dispersed, that it was probably the best throw of his life. “I’m old,’’ he said with a laugh.
One batter later, PCA would end the game with another vintage sliding catch that maybe no one else on the planet makes, but not before showing Suzuki some love.
“A lot of love,’’ PCA said. “I shot him with a lot of bows and arrows. I mean, that was just an incredible throw. And then Bregs being able to finish it with that tag, awesome. But kind of just getting to watch that happen step by step from my angle is one of the reasons that I appreciate baseball for sure. Beautiful.’’
A foul outcome
Bregman wasn’t sure whether his deep drive down the left-field line Saturday night was fair or foul, but he didn’t wait for that judgment to be rendered. He has had so few opportunities to show off his home-run trot, no point in wasting this chance.
So Bregman circled the bases, the umpires called the ball foul, crew chief Quinn Wolcott asked for a review, and he stood in front of the dugout for the final verdict. Foul ball, confirmed.
Which means, that at the end of the Cubs’ 6-1 win over the Cardinals, Bregman has hit just two home runs in his last 222 at-bats spanning 55 games. That’s more than a third of the season, and those are the only two home runs he has hit since going deep twice on March 29 against the Nationals.
“It’s all right,’’ Bregman said of his near miss in the second inning. “It’s going better now. I know I crushed it. Those will go fair. It’ll start to turn.’’
The hits have been coming for Bregman. After his near-miss in the second inning, he flared a single to right to extend his hitting streak to 10 games (13-for-42, .310). But the slug, as they like to call it, is missing.
With two days left in the month, Bregman has hit fewer home runs by this point of the season than any time in his big-league career. He slugged 17 home runs by June 1 in 2019 for Houston, 11 last season for Boston. The other seasons, no more than seven, so it’s true when he says slow starts are more the rule than the exception.