ST. LOUIS – For a moment, it looked like the Cubs might actually pull off their third comeback of the game. Cody Bellinger found a hole on the right side of the infield, and his RBI single pulled the Cubs within a run of the Cardinals.
But it wasn’t to be. With their best offensive performance in weeks, the Cubs fell to the Cardinals 7-6 on Saturday at Busch Stadium.
“I really thought we’re gonna pull that out,” said starter Jameson Taillon, who held the Cardinals to three runs through 5 ⅔ innings. “I mean, that was pretty incredible. It’s one of those things where we lost, but hopefully that’s something we can take forward and build off of.”
The Cubs starting pitching had been carrying the team as the offense went through a rut this month. And over the past week, the Cubs bullpen has posted the sixth-best ERA in the majors (2.79). On Saturday, they switched places.
With two outs and two runners on in the fourth inning, the ball jumped off Nico Hoerner’s bat toward the visitor’s bullpen in left field. Cardinals left fielder Brendan Donovan tracked it back, jumped after it and missed, the ball careening off the wall.
As Donovan searched for the bouncing ball, Christopher Morel flew around third base. And as Donovan threw it in, Morel crossed home plate standing up. Grinning, he gave Mike Tauchman, who had rounded the bases ahead of him, a double low-five.
Hoerner’s two-run double had turned the fourth inning into a Cubs rally – something that had been hard to come by for the Cubs in recent weeks. And it tied the game.
Up next, Michael Busch fell behind in the count 1-2. Then he reached out to the edge of the opposite batter’s box to drive a curveball into shallow center field. Hoerner scored standing up.
It was the first time in over a week that the Cubs had scored three runs in an inning. Last Friday they rallied for three runs in the eighth inning of a 9-3 loss to the Pirates, after being blanked by rookie phenom Paul Skenes.
This time, the rally had real implications for the outcome of the game.
The Cardinals scraped back a run in the sixth inning, and then the Cubs did the same in the seventh.
Then, in the eighth, Mark Leiter Jr., one of the Cubs’ most reliable high-leverage relievers this season, entered the game carrying a 0.90 ERA.
“He’s been a big reason for a lot of wins,” manager Craig Counsell said. “And it just didn’t play tonight.”
Deep counts and soft contact, however, gave the Cardinals traffic on the bases. And then Matt Carpenter, pinch-hitting in the bottom of the eighth, hit a line drive into right field.
Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki fielded it and fired it home, bouncing on target. Catcher Miguel Amaya caught it and dove across the plate at the Cardinals’ Alec Burleson, who was sliding in head first.
Amaya rolled and held up the ball, looking to the home plate umpire for the call. Safe.
Burleson, helmet rolling away, hair flying, punched the air. The Cardinals had tied the score again, and this time, the momentum would remain in their favor.
Donovan hit a two-run single off Leiter Jr. before the right-hander was replaced by rookie Porter Hodge. Then Hodge surrendered an RBI triple to Lars Nootbaar.
The Cubs made a push for two more runs in the ninth inning, one run too few.
The Cubs’ 12 hits were the most they’d had in a game since the series finale in Atlanta on May 15, which they won 7-1, on the back of 13 hits.
“The next game is the next challenge,” Counsell said. “And I don’t know if there’s a carryover, but it’s better to have guys swinging it good going into the next game. We’re still gonna have to face a tough pitcher [Sonny Gray] tomorrow night and earn our runs.”