Game Recap: The All-Stars deliver as Cubs pound Cardinals

Matt Marton - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese · Senior Writer · 5 hours ago

CHICAGO - Once an All-Star, always an All-Star, as the Chicago Cubs (54-36) will have three of them this season. After watching Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong be named as all-star starters for the first time, Craig Counsell had the privilege to announce another all-star as 34-year-old left-hander Matthew Boyd will be making his first all-star appearance this season.

The left-hander has proven to be worth every penny this offseason, and against the Cubs' most hated rival, the St. Louis Cardinals (48-43), Boyd went out to put on a show at Wrigley Field. Despite a high pitch count taking him out after just five innings, they were five dominant innings, to say the least, as the Cubs' offense jumped all over Erick Fedde and company to pick up an 11-0 win.

Boyd walked one and struck out a season-high nine over his five innings, scattering just three hits. He is now 9-3 on the season with a 2.52 ERA, which ranks in the top 10 in all of Major League baseball. Anytime you have a guy pitching as well as Boyd has this season, you need to capitalize on the opportunities when they come to you.

St. Louis had their chance in the first inning as a one-out walk to Masyn Wynn, followed by a Willson Contreras single, set the Cardinals up, only to have Boyd strike out the next two to escape the jam. That was a string of three straight strikeouts and five in the first two innings as Boyd was dialed in after the early struggles.

Speaking of struggles, Fedde is on a lengthy struggle right now as the right-hander can't buy a win. Command is a massive reason why, and with four walks and no strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings against this Cubs team, you're asking for a recipe for disaster. One of those walks came back to bite Fedde in the first as he walked Kyle Tucker two batters into the game, only to have Tucker steal second.

That set the stage for Pete Crow-Armstrong, who went the other way for a single to put the Cubs in front for good, 1-0. Chicago was just getting started as Nico Hoerner led off the bottom of the second with a double before walks to Matt Shaw, and Ian Happ loaded the bases for the top of the order. John King replaced Fedde and did his best to limit the damage, but it was the Tucker single that brought home a pair to push the Cubs' lead to 3-0.

Already with a comfortable lead, the Cubs refused to let up, and three batters into the fourth, they had the bases loaded with no outs. In what could go down as the best weekend of his MLB career, Michael Busch led the bottom of the third with a single before a walk to Dansby Swanson, and a Hoerner single had the Cubs threatening.

Reese McGuire kept the line moving with the third single of the inning to stretch the lead to 4-0, while a Matt Shaw fielder's choice made this a 5-0 game. That was only the start of what was to come as the Cubs went on to add three more runs to cap off a five-run frame with the Cubs on top 8-0. Happ was ruled out on a controversial groundout, but still managed to push home a run while a Tucker sacrifice fly and a Seiya Suzuki double closed out the huge inning.

Whether it was Fedde, King, or Matt Svanson, the Cubs' offense was ready, as all 11 of their runs came in the first five innings to put this one out of reach. Already with two hits under his belt, Hoerner picked up his third with an RBI triple in the fourth to push the Cubs' lead to 9-0 as he came a homer short of the cycle. Hoerner would end up scoring on the McGuire grounder later in the inning as the Cubs scored 10 runs for what feels like the 100th time this season.

When you look at all-star snubs, Suzuki has to be the biggest snub of them all as his career year continues. Not only does he lead all of MLB with 77 RBIs, but he also connected for his 25th homer in the fifth inning for the Cubs' final run, as both of those numbers are career marks for him. Given the injury to Corbin Carroll, there is a chance Suzuki gets named to the all-star team, but he should be in at this point based on his body of work.

With Boyd out of the game after five innings, you could see a sense of relief coming from the Cardinals as the recently promoted Jordan Wicks took over in the sixth. Wicks was far from perfect, but when you look at how his season has changed since returning from an injury, you get a sense that the best is yet to come from him.

Across his 3 1/3 scoreless innings, Wicks scattered three hits and struck out two, but what stands out the most in his outing was the 96 MPH fastball, three MPH above his career average. He also needed just 41 pitches to get those 10 outs, which is all you can ask for as a manager. Daniel Palencia entered the game in the ninth to pick up the final two outs as he needed to get some work.

Chicago is now a season-high 18 games above .500 following this win and have started the month of July 5-1, which is the exact type of statement they wanted to make. They also lead the NL Central by four games, which ensures they will be in first place by the All-Star Game, unless there is a catastrophic disaster next week.

Hoerner paced the Cubs with three hits in the victory as Chicago pounded out 13 total hits. Busch, Suzuki, Crow-Armstrong, and McGuire all had multi-hit efforts in the win. Busch now leads the Cubs with a .297 average and is also an All-Star snub that was left off the roster.