Wesneski roughed up as Cubs lose to Cards |
ST. LOUIS — Entering Saturday's doubleheader against the St. Louis Cardinals (49-45) at Busch Stadium, the Chicago Cubs (46-50) had a chance to extend their winning streak to six games, as this is the closest they have been to the .500 mark in quite some time.
Riding high and full of momentum, the Cubs turned to right-hander Hayden Wesneski as he matched up against the long-time Veteran Lance Lynn. Despite the Cubs grabbing another early lead and keeping their streak of consecutive innings without trailing alive, things went south in a hurry as the Cardinals offense erupted for nine runs in the bottom of the first to deliver an 11-3 game one loss to the Cubs. Although the final line for Wesneski is horrible, as he allowed 11 runs in four innings, the Cubs defense did him little to no favors, as only four of those runs were earned. He walked one and struck out four before the bullpen took over and closed out the game with five scoreless innings. Ethan Roberts and Hunter Bigge were part of that as the duo combined for five strikeouts in their scoreless efforts on the mound. Anytime you can back your starter with nine runs of support, you immediately like your chances on the mound, as that was plenty of run support for Lynn. Things haven't gone smoothly for Lynn this season, but after going six innings and allowing two runs, he moved his record to 6-4, giving the Cardinals everything they could've asked for and more. The Cubs didn't waste any time getting their offense rolling as the first inning Seiya Suzuki homer gave them a 1-0 lead. His homer came after a Michael Busch double play halted a potential rally, so it was good for the Cubs to come away with at least one run in that inning. Playing with the lead hasn't been an issue for the Cubs over the past week, but on this day, their lead not only didn't last long, but it was all Cardinals from there. Three batters into the game, and this one was tied as Willson Contreras capped off a string of three-consecutive singles to bring things to 1-1. Following a pair of fielder's choice plays, including one from Lars Nootbaar that brought home the go-ahead run, it was a costly error that pushed home another run and opened up the floodgates for a nightmare first. With a bases-loaded hit by pitch making things 4-1 and a Maysn Wynn single pushing the lead to 6-1, Alec Burleson put the exclamation point on a terrible first inning as his three-run blast ended the nine-run frame with the Cardinals in front 9-1. The Cardinals kept the pressure on with a Pedro Pages single in the second to extend their lead to 10-1 before the Cubs got one of those runs back in the fourth. What started with an Ian Happ single was followed by a Christopher Morel double, and just like that, the Cubs had a pair of runners on and no outs. What could have been a nice inning resulted in minimal damage. The Miles Mastrobuoni sacrifice fly was the lone run the Cubs would get, as they still trailed 10-2. With Nolan Gorman picking up a two-out double in the bottom of the fourth to extend the lead to 11-2, it's safe to say that this wasn't the Cubs day as their winning streak was only innings away from ending. Once the bullpen took over in the fifth, you had a bit to get excited about as Bigge and Roberts were brilliant on the mound. The final run of the game came in the top of the ninth when Patrick Wisdom finally got into a pitch as he took Kyle Leahy deep for the solo shot in an 11-3 game one loss. Seven players had one hit in the game for the Cubs as they will look to rebound in game two.
