Tauchman plays hero as Cubs win seventh straight
Jeff Curry - USA Today Sports

Tauchman plays hero as Cubs win seventh straight
by - Senior Writer - Sat Jul 29 08:44:43 GMT-04:00 2023

ST. LOUIS - Any time the Chicago Cubs (52-51) and St. Louis Cardinals (46-59) get together, you can throw records out of the window. These rivals have a knack for giving the fans great matchups no matter where they sit in the standings, and that was evident Friday night at Busch Stadium.

After trailing by a pair early on two Lars Nootbaar homers, the Cubs began to battle back to the point where they took a 3-2 lead in the sixth. They maintained that lead until the ninth inning when Adbert Alzolay looked to pick up his 12th save. This was when the drama unfolded as Alzolay allowed Willson Contreras and Tyler O'Neill to reach on singles before a crucial double play ball had him on the verge of escaping the jam.

Then with two strikes on Alec Burleson, fans were on their feet as the left-handed batter drove one to CF that kept carrying to the point where Mike Tauchman had to leap and reach over the fence to try and make the play. The result was priceless as Tauchman came away with the catch to rob Burleson of a walk-off homer, and the Cubs down the Cardinals 3-2 for their seventh straight win.

“It’s kind of like you have that internal clock or feeling of, ‘I've kind of got to go up now,’” Tauchman said to reporters. “And it kind of just coincided with the ball coming down. I didn't know, I guess, that I was right at the wall until I kind of turned to catch the ball.”

“He's got good instincts,” Ross said about Tauchman. “The instincts sometimes can outplay just raw talent for me. Good baseball instincts are really important. And he's got a high baseball IQ. I'm glad we made that switch there late. Not that [Cody Bellinger] can't do that.”

One thing David Ross has been doing recently is using an opener for Drew Smyly on his scheduled days. While Ross hasn't given a reason for that, his decision has been working as Hayden Wesneski took the ball today and gave the Cubs two innings of four-strikeout ball and allowed one Nootbaar homer. After that, it was time for Smyly to go to work as he also allowed a homer to Nootbaar but finished with six strikeouts in 4 1/3 to earn the win.

Opposing both of them was left-hander Jordan Montgomery, who, despite being crushed by the Cubs last weekend, has been the Cardinal's best pitcher this season and has dominated the Cubs in his career. Montgomery had to battle some command issues, but he was well on his way to securing another win as he kept the Cubs in check through five innings. Then came the sixth when they grabbed the lead as Montgomery was charged with three earned runs in six great innings.

The long ball played a massive role for the Cardinals the past two nights, as they have seen two players with multi-homer games in this series. This time it was Nootbaar getting those honors as he led off the bottom of the first with the first of his two homers to give the Cards an early 1-0 lead. That came on the heels of a top-of-the-first where the Cubs had a chance to strike first but couldn't come away with the big hit.

The same can be said about the Cardinals in the second, as they had Wesneski on the ropes only to let him get off the hook, while Nootbaar took it upon himself to homer again in the third to put the Cardinals in front 2-0. Little did they know those would be the only runs of the game for St. Louis as Smyly and the rest of the pitching staff locked things up.

With the Cardinals still in front 2-0 in the fifth, it was the Cubs turn to play long ball as Patrick Wisdom sent a screamer over the fence for his 18th and cut the deficit in half to 2-1.

That was only the beginning for this offense as they started to settle in during the top half of the sixth with a one-out Seiya Suzuki getting things going.

That double was followed by a walk to Ian Happ and a hit-by a pitch to Cody Bellinger as the Cubs had the bases loaded with one out and Dansby Swanson coming to bat. Swanson may not have gotten a hit, but he did his job by lifting the ball as his sacrifice fly pulled the Cubs even 2-2. With Yan Gomes taking a walk to load the bases again, Trey Mancini continued to do great work against Montgomery as his RBI single gave the Cubs a 3-2 only to see Bellinger thrown out at home trying to make it 4-2.

At this point, all the momentum was on the Cubs side until a Nolan Gorman double in the bottom of the sixth gave the Redbirds hope before Smyly finished that inning without allowing a run. Smyly came back out to pitch the seventh, but after walking Jordan Walker with one out in the inning, Ross returned to his pen, where he called on Julian Merryweather to finish the seventh.

A perfect eighth followed that seventh as the Cubs went into the ninth with the lead and looked to secure another win. Hoping to provide some late-game insurance, a leadoff single from Tauchman gave the Cubs a baserunner before the Miles Mastrobuoni walk to put a pair on with no outs. The next batter was Miguel Amaya, who tried to lay down a bunt only to see Christ Stratton and Nolan Arenado combine for a rally-killing double play as the Cubs wasted a huge scoring chance.

The drama was far from being done in this one as Alzolay put the first two runners on to begin the bottom half of the ninth, only to have a double play put him on the verge of securing the save despite a runner 90 feet away. With the help of Tauchman, Alzolay did finish the job for his 12th save in 13 tries as the Cubs have moved above .500 for the first time since May and are riding a season-long 7-game winning streak.

“Tauchman. My goodness,” Ross said. “We don't win that game early in the season.”

Chicago will look to make it six straight wins against the Cardinals on Saturday when they send Jameson Taillon to the mound against Adam Wainwright.

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