Chicago Cubs, Game 31: Cubs Complete Cardinals Sweep
By: Nick Vanderah
Tags: Chicago Cubs, Sports, Baseball, Major League Baseball, MLB

The Chicago Cubs finished off their first series against the St. Louis Cardinals of the season on Sunday night, and, despite committing four errors on defense, they ended up beating the Cardinals by a score of 13–5. This win puts the Cubs at the top of the NL Central division for the first time this season as they now hold a half-game lead over the Cardinals, with the Milwaukee Brewers 1 1/2 games back

They got another quality start from Jose Quintana, who has four of them in his last five outings. The big story here was how the Cubs stepped up big against their main divisional rival and finished the night with another double-digit run total, their seventh such game of the season.

In addition to sweeping the first series of the year against the Cardinals, the Cubs extended their winning streak to seven consecutive games. In that span they are outscoring their opponents 55–21, and they have scored at least nine runs in a game on three separate occasions. At this point, it goes without saying that the Cubs are on a roll.

Here is how it went down:

The Offense

As I mentioned already, the offense broke out in this one (especially late in the game) and posted their seventh double-digit run total of the season. The 13 runs they scored were the second-most of the season, one less than they scored on April 6 when they beat the Brewers by a score of 14–8.

The Cubs got out to an early lead thanks to an opposite-field, solo home run by Willson Contreras in the bottom of the second. That blast was already his ninth of the season, and it looks like he is finally back to hitting as well as he did in the second half of the 2017 season. The lead was extended as Jason Heyward hit an RBI triple that brought Contreras home from first, and Heyward came home himself on a sacrifice fly by David Bote to push the lead up to 3–0.

Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras. Photo Credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune

They doubled their run total in the sixth inning, giving them six runs in the game and pushing their lead up to four (after the Cardinals scored two runs in the top half of the frame). Two runs came around to score on a double by Anthony Rizzo, and, after the Cardinals pulled starting pitcher Adam Wainwright out of the game, Contreras got another RBI on a single that brought Rizzo home.

The scoring kept going through the last third of the game, as the Cubs ended up pushing seven more runs across the plate in their last two turns to bat. Only one of those runs came in the seventh inning, and that came on a single by Ben Zobrist (who had a very strong night defensively). The last six runs all came with two outs in the eighth inning. It started with an RBI-double by Bote, continued with an RBI-double by Albert Almora, and ended with a grand slam by Kris Bryant that was crushed to dead-center field (and also salvaged his performance in this game — more below).

One of the best parts about this game by the Cubs offense (aside from the runs, of course) was that they had as many walks as strikeouts (four of each), and they scored more runs (13) than they recorded hits (12). Being able to create runs in a variety of ways is an extremely important skill set in this sport, and the Cubs have proven time and time again that they can get the job done.

The Pitching

Even though this outing was not as dominant as some of his other recent games, Quintana gave the Cubs another quality start and was able to keep the Cardinals offense at bay for most of the game. Over his six innings of work he allowed two runs on eight hits and two walks. The only thing that Q left more to be desired of were the punch outs (he only recorded two Ks), but he did his job tonight by limiting the damage against him.

Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Jose Quintana. Photo Credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune

The first two guys out of the bullpen for the Cubs came in and kept the door closed on the Cards. Brandon Kintler posted a scoreless seventh inning with two strikeouts and one hit allowed. That was followed by a flawless frame by side-slinging Steve Cishek, as he retired the side in order in the eighth. Things got a little rough for Tyler Chatwood as he did allow three earned runs on three hits (two of those being home runs), but he was still able to close the door on a blow-out victory.

It was almost a miracle that the Cubs did not give up any more home runs than they had, because they had several miscues on the defensive end. Bryant made two errors by himself, one on a throwing error (that looked like he was having some sort of issue with either the elbow or shoulder on his throwing arm) and another on a fielding error.

Javier Baez committed a “throwing error” in the sixth inning on a double by Yadier Molina. After receiving the throw from the outfield he attempted to glove-flip the ball to Bote at second, but instead the ball went nowhere near the second baseman and Molina was allowed to advance to third base on the play. The last error came on a fielding miscue by Heyward in right field, but given that he is such a solid defender (and the fact that the Cubs were up by double-digits at the time) that error was less concerning in the moment.

Coming Up

The Cubs will continue their 10-game home stand with a four-game series against the Miami Marlins that begins on Monday. These two teams have been going in opposite directions as the Cubs have won 18 of their last 24 games, and the Marlins have a 9–24 record on the season.

That will be immediately followed up by a three-game weekend series against the Brewers, in a series that will continue to affect how the division stacks up in the early part of the season. Given the teams that the Cubs, Cardinals, and Brewers will be facing, I like the odds that the Cubs will continue to be in first place by the time the Brewers series begins.

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