Saturday’s Game Report: Cardinals 8, Cubs 6
By Rob Rains
In the more than 1,000 games the Cardinals have played at Wrigley Field since the venerable park opened in 1916, nobody had ever done what Yohel Pozo did on Saturday.
Pozo came off the bench in a 5-5 game in the eighth inning and launched a pinch-hit, go-ahead, three-run homer onto Waveland Avenue that sent the Cardinals to a win over the Cubs that snapped their four-game losing streak.
According to the Baseball Reference website, no Cardinal pinch-hitter had ever hit a go-ahead homer at Wrigley in the eighth inning or later in any of their first 1,030 games played at the stadium.
The homer capped a five-run inning which began with the Cardinals trailing 5-3. Alec Burleson led off with a home run, followed by a single by Thomas Saggese, a bunt single by Lars Nootbaar and an RBI single by Nolan Gorman that tied the game before Pozo, batting for Pedro Pages, drilled a 3-2 pitch onto the street behind the left field bleachers for his third home run of the season.
It was the first pinch-hit homer of the year in 40 at-bats for the Cardinals.
Here is how Saturday’s game broke down:
At the plate: A bases-loaded single from Saggese, a late replacement for Nolan Arenado, gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead in the first inning. The hit snapped an 0-of-19 slump … The Cardinals led 3-1 after a home run from Gorman leading off the fourth … Double plays killed potential rallies in the fifth and seventh, grounded into by Saggese and Masyn Winn, as the Cubs came back to take the lead … Burleson’s homer was his 11th of the season, tying him with Nootbaar and Willson Contreras for the team lead, and was his third hit of the day following singles in the first and fifth innings.
On the mound: Matthew Liberatore battled with his control as he issued four walks, but led 3-2 when he came out of the game after the fifth inning. One of the four hits he allowed was a home run to Michael Busch, his fourth in the first two games of the series … The Cubs tied the game with three consecutive hits off Kyle Leahy before his second wild pitch scored the go-ahead run in the sixth … A home run from former Cardinal Carson Kelly off Steven Matz in the seventh increased the lead to 5-3 … The Cubs scored their final run in the eighth off JoJo Romero before Ryan Helsley survived two long fly balls in the ninth, then struck out Busch to end the game.
Key stat: Pozo is now 4-of-8 as a pinch-hitter this season with five RBIs. Collectively the rest of the Cardinals are 7-of-32 while pinch-hitting with four RBIs. The only other players with more than one pinch-hit are Luken Baker with three and Burleson with two.
Worth noting: Arenado was in the original lineup but was scratched about an hour before the game because of an impingement in his right shoulder. Arenado had missed two of the games in Pittsburgh earlier on this road trip because of a sore finger … The Cardinals’ last pinch-hit home run at Wrigley in the eighth inning or later was from Paul DeJong in 2021 but that came with the Cardinals losing 10-3. Overall it was the Cardinals 22nd all-time pinch-hit homer at Wrigley. The last go-ahead pinch-hit home run was hit by Tom Alston in the seventh inning on April 18, 1954 … The win gave the Cardinals an 11-2 record on Saturday’s this season and handed the Cubs only their third loss in 15 games played on Saturday.
Up next: Erick Fedde, who is winless in his last nine starts since May 9, will pitch the final game of the series on Sunday night. It was be televised by ESPN with first pitch scheduled for 5:10 p.m.
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