Cards happy to be home as they finally renew fierce rivalry with Cubs

ST. LOUIS -- The last time the Cardinals and Cubs went this deep into an MLB season before renewing one of the sport’s fiercest rivalries was 1997, and the late, great Fernando Valenzuela was on the mound for St. Louis in a 3-0 loss.

Of course, a lot has changed since then, but the dislike between the two clubs persists. Absence certainly hasn’t made the two sides grow fonder of one another with the latest bit of gamesmanship between the two sides emerging on Sunday afternoon.

Seemingly waiting for the other side to blink first, neither the Cards nor the Cubs would reveal their pitching plans beyond Monday’s series opener and Tuesday’s game at Busch Stadium.

“We’ll prepare the same way, but I’m looking forward to this series, for sure,” manager Oliver Marmol said on Sunday afternoon when his club’s five-game winning streak ended in a 4-1 loss to the Reds.

Oddly, the Cardinals will come into the series having faced every other team in the National League Central. Also, they have played 33 games against American League teams (with a 16-17 record) -- including a three-game sweep in Chicago against the White Sox Tuesday through Thursday -- before squaring off against the rival Cubs. Over the past 14 years, the North Siders’ first visit of the season to St. Louis has come later than June 23 just once, and that was in 2023, when the two clubs faced off in London.

“I was thinking about it the other day. ... We’ve played home and away series against Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Milwaukee, and we haven’t played the Cubs yet,” marveled Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar, who hadn’t been born yet when the Cards and Cubs played in late June 1997. “Obviously, we know that [the Cubs] have been playing good ball and that’s a team in our division that we’re looking to catch up to.

“Any time you play the Cubs, it’s always a fun series, and when the stakes are a little higher, there’s probably a little more intensity with it.”

The Cardinals came into Sunday looking to sweep a second straight series, but they failed in that bid -- and in trying to draw closer to the Cubs -- with their loss to the Reds. Andrew Abbott braved the triple-digit heat index temperatures on the playing surface at Busch Stadium and he limited St. Louis to just three hits and one run over seven innings.

That defeat left the Cardinals (42-36) 4 1/2 games back of a first-place Cubs (46-31) squad that has ruled the NL Central most of the season. Miles Mikolas, a tough-luck loser on Sunday despite allowing just four hits and three runs (two earned) over five innings, is hoping the head-to-head matchup with the Cubs will allow the Cards to make up some ground in the standings.

And Mikolas is hoping for some help from St. Louis fans to make Busch Stadium a difficult place to play over the next four days.

“These are the fun games, the rivalry games and I’m sure there will be a bunch of blue up in the seats, but hopefully there’s more red,” said Mikolas, who struck out six Reds. “I know it’s a midweek series, but I hope the turnout is good. Come to the game and boo the Cubs. You know, get in their head and give us a home-field advantage. Let us take our shot, give ‘em hell and maybe make a move right here.”

Marmol likes that the resumption of the rivalry will start at home where the Cardinals have gone 24-15 this season. Because of Busch Stadium’s well-earned reputation for being a difficult place to hit homers, the Cards have adapted to their surroundings in that they are content with singles and doubles instead of swinging for the fences so often.

That was evident in Saturday’s dramatic 11-inning win over the Reds when the Cardinals strung together four straight two-out hits in the eighth inning to trim a three-run deficit to one. Later, St. Louis walked it off when reserve catcher Yohel Pozo went with a pitch off the plate and punched it into right field to score Jordan Walker.

“I think we’re playing to our strengths because we don’t hit a ton of homers,” said Marmol, whose Cardinals (74) have hit 39 fewer homers than the Cubs (113). “Our [offensive] production has actually been higher at Busch than on the road. I think part of it is that we have the mentality of collecting hits. It doesn’t mean that we won’t hit homers or doubles, but we do have to play to our strengths, and we have guys who can hit.

“So, selling out for one thing and being vulnerable to other parts of the game has hurt us at times, but that hasn’t been the case this year.”