ST. LOUIS – Remarkably, in a game where there were five home runs, 23 hits and 15 runs scored between the rival Cardinals and Cubs, the three most significant plays of the night ironically came on the defensive side of the ball – two of them made and one bungled that led to the game-winner.
Cardinals’ right fielder Alec Burleson covered 97 feet, per Statcast, and snagged a foul popup before crashing into the netting along the stands to end a seventh-inning threat and Nolan Arenado's bare-handed play on a grounder ended the game as St. Louis beat the Cubs 8-7 to pull within 2 1/2 games of the lead in the National League Central.
As for the gaffe, Cubs superstar center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong lost track of the outs in the bottom of the fourth, allowing Cardinals speedster Masyn Winn to score from second on a Burleson fly ball to the wall. Crow-Armstrong, the NL leader in Outs Above Average among center fielders, turned his back on the play after hauling in Burleson’s drive at the wall – something Cards third-base coach Pop Warner recognized immediately and waved Winn in for what proved to be game-winning run.
“I want to [run hard], in general, in case he’s got to go up and make a crazy play or ends up falling to the ground,” Winn said. “Obviously, I didn’t see what happened because I was running, but I was busting it and Pop was waving me on so I kept going. It turned into a big run that we needed.”
While the Cardinals took advantage of that defensive gaffe, they made the plays they had to make to secure a second straight win over the rival Cubs in as many nights. Burleson, who had a sliding catch in the fourth inning to rob Crow-Armstrong of a hit, brazenly crashed into the netting along the right-field sidewall to catch Dansby Swanson’s foul pop and end a second-and-third threat in the seventh.
“My [jersey] buttons were hung in the net and I’ve got a little bit of road rash on my chin; thank God that I have a beard so you can’t see it,” Burleson said of a play sure to make the rounds on the highlight shows over the next 24 hours. “That wall over there is short, so worst-case scenario you’re falling into the net like I did. I thought I had more room until I got over there and caught the ball and fell into the net.”
To cap the night, Arenado – the 10-time Gold Glover who is again playing elite defense – bare-handed a chopper by Swanson and threw onto first to seal the victory. The 34-year-old Arenado, who considered a variety of trades over the offseason in hopes of playing with a contender, admitted afterward that he’s having the time of his life playing with a Cards team that has 20 come-from-behind wins to its credit.
“I didn’t expect us to be winning like this, at this point,” Arenado said candidly. “I expected us to play hard, I thought we were going to be good defensively and I thought our pitching would be fine. … Just seeing everyone one-through-nine contributing, I mean I like playing baseball like this … against the Cubs … where games matter.
“As you get older, that’s what you want. You don’t want to play games just to play games. Individually, I’ve accomplished some things in this game and I want to accomplish something team-oriented and special and win a World Series. Games like this, it’s easy to wake up for. This is the most excited [that] I’ve come to the ballpark for – this series – in about two years.”
For a second night in a row, Lars Nootbaar broke a scoreless tie with a long, two-run home run early on. However, that lead would not last long as Kyle Tucker doubled in two runs and Seiya Suzuki blasted a three-run homer off Cardinals rookie Michael McGreevy.
That three-run deficit did nothing to deter the Cardinals. Winn clubbed a two-run homer in the third inning off Jameson Taillon, who came into Tuesday 5-1 versus the Cardinals before getting shelled for eight hits, eight earned runs and three homers.
The Cards added on in the fourth inning, scoring four times on a 432-foot homer by Nolan Gorman, a two-run double by Winn and added that eighth run on Crow-Armstrong’s gaffe at the center-field wall.
“What I love about it is you never know which play, which run or which at-bat is going to be the most meaningful one of the game and our guys continue to play every pitch with a ton of heart,” said manager Oliver Marmol, whose club won for a seventh time in the past eight games.