ST. LOUIS — It took the Cardinals 32 days to reach their destination. Not THE destination, mind you, because the Cardinals still are in considerable arrears, seven games’ worth, in the National League Central Division race. But for the first time since they were 36-35 between doubleheader games in Atlanta on June 20, the Cardinals are better than a .500 club at 49-48.
Their 3-2 win over the Chicago Cubs in the finale of a four-game series at Busch Stadium before the season’s largest crowd at 41,412 gave the Cardinals their second consecutive series win, at three out of four, and their third series win in the past four series, with the other a two-game split.
That translates to a 5-2 homestand and eight wins in the Cardinals' past 12 games. Four of those wins — one in each series — have been recorded in succession by left-hander Kwang Hyun Kim (6-5), who has won five consecutive starts overall, counting his final one in June.
Kim celebrated his 33rd birthday on Thursday but it surely was a bittersweet one because he had to put his family members back on a plane to South Korea Thursday morning as their 10-day visit had ended. Nevertheless, Kim continued the efficiency he had displayed all month, although his streak of scoreless innings was stopped at 24 2/3.
Kim allowed only two hits and two runs, both in the fourth inning, and struck out seven in six innings before turning the game over to the bullpen trifecta of Ryan Helsley, left-hander T. J. McFarland and Alex Reyes, who posted his 23rd save in 24 tries in his first appearance since losing a 6-1 lead on Tuesday.
The game produced a scary moment in the seventh when Cubs reliever Dillon Maples hit Cardinals shortstop Edmundo Sosa on the left side of his batting helmet with a 95-mph fastball. Sosa, who had had to dodge a slider over his head on the previous pitch by Maples, remained down face first for some anxious seconds before receiving medical attention from a doctor and two athletic trainers and staying in the game to run the bases.
It was a red-letter day for the offense, though only three runs were scored.
The Cardinals, who had put their leadoff man on base in the first inning only twice in the previous 24 games, didn’t exactly put him on base Thursday night either. Dylan Carlson, who had a big night with a home run and two doubles, circled the bases with the club’s first leadoff homer of the season, a 420-foot blast to right off the Cubs’ Adbert Alzolay.
It was also Carlson’s first leadoff homer of his career and gave him seven runs batted in for the series, which means he was doing some considerable hitting after the first inning.
Nolan Arenado, coming off a recent two-for-25 downturn, homered for the second night in three when he clubbed a two-run homer 408 feet to left center in the third after Carlson had blooped a double among three defenders.
Kim knocked off 3 2/3 hitless innings before Javy Baez singled with two out in the fourth. Baez’s hit, which zinged past Kim’s ear, followed a walk to Patrick Wisdom, who missed his 15th homer by just a few feet on a drive to deep left which went foul.
Pitching coach Mike Maddux visited the mound after Baez’s hit but the Cubs resumed their rally when Jake Marisnick plugged the right-center-field gap with a double to drive in both Wisdom and Baez and it was 3-2.
In the fifth, the Cubs laced two other balls hard as Nico Hoerner’s liner was plucked off by third baseman Arenado and Ian Happ flied deep to right where Carlson ran it down at the track.
Carlson then doubled again, this time to left center, with two outs in the Cardinals’ fifth. It was his first career game with three extra-base hits. But, after he had balked Carlson to third, Alzolay struck out Paul Goldschmidt for the second time.
Anthony Rizzo sent center fielder Harrison Bader to the track in right center with another well-struck ball in the Cubs’ sixth and then Kim finished his night by striking out Wisdom. Kim issued just one walk in six innings, which was the only unintentional walk by a Cardinals starting pitcher in the four-game set.
The Cardinals have been leading the majors most of the season in walks issued.
They may also lead the league in diving catches in the outfield. Left fielder Tyler O’Neill, as Sosa made sure to avoid him, turned in a sliding catch on Baez, the first hitter Helsley encountered in the seventh. Then, Bader topped it, with a spectacular, flat-out dive to snatch a bloop hit from Hoerner to end the inning.
After Sosa was hit with one out in the home seventh, pinch hitter Matt Carpenter walked, and so did Goldschmidt with two outs. But Arenado flied to deep right center to leave the bases loaded.
McFarland, just picked up a week ago, threw his second double-play ball in two nights when Sosa stepped back to field a hard one-hopper by pinch hitter Robinson Chirinos to wipe out a leadoff walk to pinch hitter Kris Bryant in the eighth. McFarland then fanned Willson Contreras.
Per custom, Reyes walked one. But after he passed Baez with two outs in the ninth, he made Marisnick his second strikeout victim.
