*Photo from the News Tribune*
The Redbirds are heating up right now. Paul DeJong homered, Jordan Walker added a home run, and the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Chicago Cubs with a 7-2 victory on Thursday night in Chicago.
Currently, the Cardinals are on a 6 game win streak and have won 9 of 11 games but are still well under .500 at 44-53 overall. DeJong, Walker, and Nolan Arenado combined to drive in 6 of the 7 runs scored by the Cardinals.
St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said of the team's winning streak that "It’s fun seeing our guys run the bases and our offense continuing doing what they’re doing because we faced a good arm today. Our starting pitching is doing a really good job and our ‘pen has been more consistent. It’s been fun to watch."
Willson Contreras started the scoring in the first inning for the Cardinals, giving them a 1-0 lead with an RBI double that scored Paul Goldschmidt. It stayed that way until the 4th inning, when Walker blasted a two run home run to extend the lead to 3-0. Arenado then drove in two runs with a double that made the lead 5-0.
Yan Gomes got the Cubs on the board in the bottom of the 4th, hitting an RBI triple that scored Seiya Suzuki and cut the deficit to 5-1. Shortly after, DeJong answered back for the Cardinals, making it a 7-1 game with a two run home run to right field. Gomes scored in the 7th on a groundout from Christopher Morel that made it a 7-2 game.
Steven Matz started for the Cardinals, pitching 5 innings and allowing one run on 3 hits and one walk, earning his first win of the season. Andre Pallante, Kyle Leahy, JoJo Romero, and Giovanny Gallegos closed out the win for the Cardinals.
Matz said of the weight of getting his first win that "It definitely does weigh on me, especially when my pitch count started to get high there in the fifth inning, so I was happy to get out of that. For me, it’s more about the quality innings. Getting through that fifth inning and getting a good team win, this can give me some momentum going forward."
Marcus Stroman started for the Cubs and got hit for 5 runs on 7 hits and 4 walks in just 3 2/3 innings. Michael Rucker pitched the next 1 1/3 innings and allowing two runs before Javier Assad came on and delivered 4 innings of shutout ball.
Stroman said of his start that it was "Just one of those games where you feel like kind of everything works against you. Didn’t help with the walks. Just felt like I was slightly off mechanically, just missing the zone, getting behind in counts. Didn’t get ahead much, and then they put some good swings on balls. Just one of those games I felt like nothing could go my way and I couldn’t get in a rhythm."
Up next, the series continues on Friday afternoon. The Cardinals give the start to Jack Flaherty as they go for their 7th win in a row, while the Cubs try to snap the streak with Justin Steele taking the mound.
Comments
Post a Comment