*Photo from SportsMax*
The offense was on full display across the pond. Dansby Swanson homered, Ian Happ homered twice, and the Chicago Cubs routed the St. Louis Cardinals with a 9-1 victory on Saturday afternoon in London.
After the inaugural London Series in 2019, MLB in England returned with the Cubs and Cardinals in 2023. Just like 2019, the offense has been on full display so far, with the Cubs staking themselves to an early lead they wouldn't relinquish. It's their 4th straight win and 9th in 10 games.
Happ said of the game itself "That's part of coming here and doing this. You still have to play baseball. You still have to go out and do your job. And I think it was a complete game. Steeley did a great job. The defense behind him was really good. And then the bats, the bats were on today."
After a scoreless first inning, Happ hit a solo home run in the second to put the Cubs up 1-0. That quickly became 2-0 on an RBI single from Nick Madrigal. Happ homered again in the 3rd to make it a 3-0 game. Christopher Morel and Yan Gomes delivered RBI singles later in the inning, pushing the Cubs lead to 5-0.
Mike Tauchman kept the production coming with an RBI double in the 4th inning to make it 6-0. He then scored on a fielders choice to make it 7-0. In the 6th, the Cardinals got on the board courtesy of a Paul Goldschmidt RBI single. Swanson punctuated the day for the Cubs with a two run home run in the 9th inning, making it a 9-1 final score.
Happ said of his two homer game that "He was trying to get a sinker in and it just kind of leaked a little bit. I put a good swing on it. That second at bat, same thing got to two strikes, and he left that curveball just up probably a little higher than he wanted."
Justin Steele got the start for the Cubs, delivering 6 innings with one run allowed on 5 hits and one walk, adding 8 strikeouts. Julian Merryweather, Michael Fulmer, and Anthony Kay each threw an inning out of the bullpen to seal the win.
Adam Wainwright started the game for the Cardinals, getting tagged for 7 runs on 11 hits and a walk in 3+ innings. Steven Matz pitched the next 3 1/3 innings, allowing no runs before Jake Woodford pitched 1 2/3 innings scoreless. Drew VerHagen allowed two runs in the 9th inning.
Wainwright said of the loss that "I’m pretty sad about it, honestly, because I pitched terrible. We’re trying to make new Cardinals fans and we didn’t make any today, and that’s because of me. It’s 2-1 without me in the game, so that whole game was my fault."
The quick two game trip to London wraps up Sunday morning. The Cubs look for two wins across the pond with Marcus Stroman starting, while the Cardinals look to split as Matthew Liberatore takes the mound.
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