CHICAGO — What the Cardinals have come to expect from the National League’s MVP favorite overshadowed what the Cardinals have long been expecting all year from a young sinkerballer.
Paul Goldschmidt hit two home runs, drove home five RBIs, and had three hits to elevate his chase for the NL Triple Crown and lift the Cardinals to a 8-3 victory Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field. A box score crowded with offensive achievements, including Corey Dickerson setting a club record with his 10th hit in 10 consecutive at-bats, also had there at the bottom a pitching line that the Cardinals hope is a breakthrough.
Dakota Hudson pitched seven steady, up-tempo innings and tied a season high that he had not matched in 2 ½ months.
Hudson once described this season, his first full season since Tommy John surgery, as an “experiment.” He’s altered his arm slot, tried to quicken his tempo, scrapped his cutter in favor of a slider, and made adjustment after adjustment. Through all that he’s yet to find the consistency the Cardinals feel he can achieve with groundball-greedy approach and a sinker to make it happen. He’s struggled with walks to left-handed batters, and he’s had innings come apart slowly as his pace turns to a crawl and pitches veer out of the zone.
There was little trace of that Thursday.
Hudson (7-6) sidestepped two hits and a walk in the second inning by getting three groundouts that interrupted the Cubs’ rally before they could erase the Cardinals’ three-run lead. After an RBI single in the third for the Cubs’ second run, Hudson got 14 outs from the final 14 batters he faced. Only three of them got the ball beyond the reach of an infielder. Hudson struck out four and 10 of the other 17 outs did not leave the infield.
The Cardinals backed Hudson’s first quality start since the All-Star break with 16 hits. Eleven of them were singles, two were triples. The Cardinals had a 3-0 lead by the time the Cubs got the second out of the game, and then Goldschmidt took over. His two-run single in the fourth widened the Cardinals lead, and then the two homers added exclamation points to the scoring.
The win gave the Cardinals the series victory after five games in four days at Wrigley Field. The win also clinched a .500 or better record against the Cubs for a fifth consecutive season.
Goldschmidt adds shine to ‘Triple Crown’
With his solo homer in the sixth inning, Goldschmidt moved into sole possession of two jewels of the Triple Crown and lifted himself within reach of the third.
A second home run got him even closer.
An undercurrent of Goldschmidt’s overwhelming season has been whether he could make a run at the National League’s first Triple Crown since the 1930s. Goldschmidt has a hearty lead in the batting average category and upped his to .339 with his second homer of the afternoon. The more competitive columns are RBIs and home runs. Goldschmidt’s five RBIs by the start of the ninth inning gave him 105 for the year, three more than the Mets’ Pete Alonso.
Goldschmidt socked his 33rd homer of the season to dead-center field in the eighth inning. That’s one fewer than Philadelphia slugger Kyle Schwarber.
In 2013, Goldschmidt led the National League in homers (36) and RBIs (125). But his .302 average did not crack the top 10, surpassed by batting champ Michael Cuddyer (.331) and two Cardinals, Yadier Molina (.319) and Matt Carpenter (.318). Goldschmidt finished second in MVP voting that season, snug between winner Andrew McCutchen and Molina.
The last Triple Crown winner in the National League was in 1937 when the Cardinals Joe Medwick led the Gas House Gang. He had 31 homers, 154 RBIs, and a .374 average.
Dickerson sets Cardinals record
During the Cardinals’ three-run rally to open the game, Dickerson lashed an RBI single against the grain to make some club history.
Back-to-back four-hit games positioned Dickerson to start in the series finale and take aim at both a Cardinals record and, by afternoon’s end, a major-league record. He had eight hits in eight consecutive at-bats to tie the longest streak by a Cardinal since 1961. The single in the first inning brought home the game’s first run and gave Dickerson nine hits in nine consecutive at-bats. He raised that streak to 10 consecutive with a leadoff single in the third.
Dickerson’s 10-for-10 set the expansion era record for a Cardinal, moving ahead of Felix Jose, Fernando Tatis, and Curt Flood, who did it twice.
A fielder’s choice groundball in the fourth inning ended Dickerson’s streak. When his 10-for-10 single slipped into center field, Dickerson raised his average to nearly .470 since the All-Star break.
Dandy defense on both sides
For a game that featured 11 hits off the Cubs starter Marcus Stroman and a steady rhythm of offense, the two teams put together some defensive highlights that probably will be forgotten by the time you read this sentence.
(And there was at least one defensive miss in right field on a fly ball that will live on.)
In the fifth inning alone, Cubs second baseman Zach McKinstry had three superb plays and turned two of them into outs. McKinstry raced from second into left-center field to make a catch for the first out of the inning. Tommy Edman scalded a grounder up the middle that McKinstry dove to reach, but when he got to his feet, pirouetted around teammate, and looked to make the throw Edman was already safe.
The inning ended with a similar play: McKinstry dove behind second base to glove a hotshot grounder from Andrew Knizner. McKinstry had the time to make the throw for the third out of the inning.
Left fielder Ian Happ had two catches in the ivy for outs.
A pivotal moment in Hudson’s start came down to the length of Goldschmidt’s reach and the tip of his cleats. Goldschmidt wears Size 14 cleats, and he admitted earlier this season that there may be some extra room in the cleat for plays like Thursday’s. Cubs infielder Christopher Morel hammered a grounder to third base. Edman, spelling Nolan Arenado at the position, got a glove on the ball and then had to collect the carom. He still had time to make the throw – and Goldschmidt had the reach.
Steadying himself with his right arm, Goldschmidt kept that cleat on the base and reached to make the catch and get the out. That play kept the Cubs from scoring two runs and tying the game, 3-3. It was the final out of the inning, and both Cubs baserunners were stranded in scoring position.
