In a back-and-forth battle befitting one of baseball’s fiercest rivalries, the St. Louis Cardinals overcame an early deficit and held off the Chicago Cubs for a 6-5 victory Friday night at Busch Stadium.
The game opened with fireworks in the first inning. Chicago jumped ahead quickly when Ian Happ launched a three-run homer off Cardinals starter Andre Pallante, capping a rally that sent the Cubs in front 3-0. But St. Louis answered immediately in the bottom half. Newly called-up outfielder Nelson Velázquez, making his Cardinals debut after a promotion from Triple-A Memphis, crushed a three-run shot of his own off Cubs ace Shota Imanaga to tie the game at 3-3. The dramatic blast earned Velázquez a curtain call from the home crowd.
Chicago reclaimed the lead in the second when Michael Busch delivered an RBI single, making it 4-3. The Cardinals, however, kept chipping away. Thomas Saggese tied it again in the fourth with a solo homer to left-center, his first long ball of the season.
St. Louis took its first lead in the fifth on an Ivan Herrera home run and added an insurance run in the eighth. The bullpen, led by a strong outing from reliever Riley O’Brien, navigated a tense ninth to close it out, with O’Brien inducing a game-ending groundout.
The Cardinals finished with nine hits, getting timely contributions up and down the lineup. Velázquez, Saggese, and Herrera all went deep, providing the offensive spark needed against a Cubs team that banged out 11 hits but left too many runners stranded.
For Chicago, Happ’s three-RBI night and solid contact from the top of the order kept them in it, but the bullpen couldn’t hold the late lead. Imanaga battled through a high-pitch count but was tagged for the early damage.
With the win, the Cardinals improved to 30-25, while the Cubs fell to 31-27. The victory snapped a recent skid for St. Louis and added another memorable chapter to the NL Central rivalry. The two teams will meet again Saturday in the middle game of this weekend series.
