Saturday’s Game Report: Cubs 7, Cardinals 3
By Rob Rains
After watching Michael Busch torment them all season, the Cardinals finally found a way to get around the Cubs’ slugging first baseman in the eighth inning on Saturday.
It was not received well by the crowd at Wrigley Field.
Busch had gone 4-for-4 in the game, including two more home runs to lead the Cubs to a 7-3 lead when he came up to bat for the fifth time needing only a single to hit for the cycle.
Instead of giving him that chance, however, the Cardinals ordered an intentional walk.
The decision came after Dansby Swanson had stolen third earlier in the inning, with the four-run lead, perhaps making the intentional walk a retaliatory move.
The two home runs by Busch, including one on Michael McGreevy’s first pitch of the game, were his eighth and ninth hit against the Cardinals in just 11 games this season. The only other two Cubs in history to hit nine homers against the Cardinals in a season were Ernie Banks in 1955 and Hack Wilson in 1929.
For the season, Busch has gone 21-of-45 against the Cardinals, a .467 average, with five doubles, a triple and 17 RBIs.
Here is how Saturday’s game broke down:
At the plate: All three runs for the Cardinals came on home runs. Nolan Arenado hit a solo shot with one out in the fourth that tied the game at 1 and Jordan Walker hit a two-run blast in the seventh that pulled the Cardinals within a run at 4-3 … The Cardinals had only five hits through the first eight innings … In the ninth Nolan Gorman reached on a infield single with one out and a single by Jimmy Crooks and a walk to Walker, his second of the game, loaded the bases with two outs and brought the tying run to the plate. Nathan Church struck out to end the game.
On the mound: The home run by Busch off McGreevy was the 33rd home run allowed in the first inning by the Cardinals this season, the second highest total in the NL trailing only the Rockies … Busch’s second homer also came off McGreevy, a two-run shot in the fifth … Saiya Suzuki greeted Ryan Fernandez with a home run in the sixth and Pete Crow-Armstrong added a two-run shot off Jorge Alcala in the eighth.
Key stat: The four home runs by the Cubs increased their season total to 28 homers in 12 games against the Cardinals. They have hit 19 homers in just five games at Wrigley Field.
Worth noting: The Cardinals struck out 13 times, so exactly half of their outs in the first two games of the series, 27 of 54, have come via a strikeout … Gorman struck out three times after fanning twice on Friday … John Mozeliak is expected to meet with the St. Louis media on Monday at Busch Stadium with incoming president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom expected to hold a news conference on Tuesday.
Up next: Kyle Leahy will make the first start of his major-league career on Sunday in the final game of the season as the Cardinals try to salvage the final game of the three-game series.
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