Game Recap: Cardinals rally late to top Cubs

Patrick Gorski - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese · Senior Writer · 10 hours ago

CHICAGO - When it was announced that Jameson Taillon would miss significant time with a calf injury, the Chicago Cubs (53-36) knew they would need to adjust their rotation at some point. What that adjustment is remains to be seen, but Craig Counsell elected to go with a bullpen game against the St. Louis Cardinals (48-42) Saturday afternoon at Wrigley.

While there were plenty of good moments from the Cubs, especially on the offensive end, the back of the bullpen was an issue, in particular Brad Keller, who got rocked for five earned runs in his outing. Those runs came after the Cubs rallied to take the lead as the Cardinals picked up the come-from-behind victory over their rivals 8-6.

While there was talk of Chris Flexen getting the start, Drew Pomeranz was summoned to serve as the opener for the third time this season. Pomeranz has been as good as anyone in baseball this year, but this wasn't his best outing, as he only lasted 1/3 of an inning. In that time frame, you saw Pomeranz walk two batters before allowing an Alec Burleson single as the Cardinals had the bases loaded with one out.

That was the end of the road for Pomeranz, who was immediately replaced by Flexen, and one batter into his outing, it was Thomas Saggese coming through with an RBI single that gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead. Both those runs were charged to Pomeranz, as those were the first two earned runs he has given up this season.

At some point, you had to know the Cubs were going to start to hit left-handed pitching again, and despite it not always showing, they did look much more comfortable against Matt Liberatore, who was on the mound for the Cardinals. Liberatore battled through some command issues, walking four and striking out four across five innings, but all that matters is that he kept the Cubs' offense in check, allowing just two runs.

The first of those runs came on a second-inning homer from Michael Busch as he made a rare start versus a lefty. Had the Cubs been able to capitalize in the first when they had the bases loaded and one out, there is a chance that Liberatore would've been on the short end of the stick, but he managed to limit the damage the best he could.

With Flexen on the mound for the Cubs, the Cardinals offense began to hit another rough patch although Nolan Gorman touched him up for a solo shot in the fourth to put the Cardinals on top 3-1. Take that away and Flexen continued his outstanding work as he gave Counsell 3 2/3 strong innings to help save some of the Cubs arms.

Like the first, Chicago had a golden chance to do some damage off Liberatore in the fourth as Busch started things off with a double to keep his hot hitting going. Busch would eventually reach third on a wild pitch later in the inning before being thrown out at home on a Matt Shaw fielder's choice. All was not lost as the Cubs still found a way to push a run across as an Ian Happ grounder pulled the Cubs within 3-2.

Those were the only runs Liberatore would allow as he closed out his outing with a scoreless fifth to put the ball in the hands of the pen. It was a move that didn't age well as Kyle Leahy immediately ran into some sixth-inning trouble as Carson Kelly set the offense up with a leadoff double. Kell would advance to third on a Busch single before a wild pitch put a pair of runners in scoring position with no outs.

Nico Hoerner kept the line moving with another single to make this a 3-3 only to have a second wild pitch result in the Cubs first lead of the game 4-3. Chicago would end up loading the bases later in the inning, only to have Pete Crow-Armstrong go down on strikes for the massive out. With the Cubs pen continuing to do their job throughout the game, the offense capitalized on the Cardinals mistakes as Kelly took Steven Matz deep in the bottom of the seventh to extend their lead to 5-3.

Given where things were sitting and who the Cubs had lined up to pitch in the final two innings, you had to like their chances to pick up a win as Keller was called on to pitch the eighth inning. Although not as crisp as he has been, Keller still entered the game with a .45 ERA since the middle of April as he is having a breakout campaign.

Two batters into his outing saw Burleson pick up a homer to pull St. Louis to within 5-4, as that was a sign of the things to come. Willson Contreras, Lars Nootbaar, and Gorman followed suit with a trio of singles, with the Gorman single bringing things back to even 5-5. The big blow of the inning came off the bat of Yohel Pozo, who not only entered the game as a pinch hitter but proceeded to launch a game-winning three-run shot into the seats as the Cardinals opened up their biggest lead of the game 8-5.

As has been the case a ton for the Cubs this season, no lead is safe against this team, and with the top of the order set to face JoJo Romero in the eighth, this game was far from over. For the most part, Romero did his job only to have a costly two-out catcher interference call put Kyle Tucker on base and bring new life to the Cubs.

Seiya Suzuki used that to his advantage as he extended his MLB RBI lead with a double to make this an 8-6 game. That was all Romero would allow, and for the Cubs, that was it for them offensively as Ryan Helsley came in to shut the door with a perfect ninth inning to give the Cardinals a 8-6 win.

Given all the struggles this team has had against lefties, seeing them score three times off left-handers had to be refreshing, as they had a great approach at the plate. Watching Busch get a start against a lefty and pick up three hits to raise his average to a team-best .293 was impressive, as he has earned more starts against Southpaws. The Cubs will look for the series victory on Sunday when they send Matthew Boyd to the mound against Erick Fedde.