By MATT PIKE
It may not be the All Star break yet, but the St. Louis Cardinals gained some crucial ground in the NL Central race against their bitter rival the Chicago Cubs, winning their series opener at Busch Stadium 8-2 on Monday night.
The Cardinals scored all their runs in the middle innings, first getting two in the fourth inning on a two run home run by Lars Nootbaar, scoring Willson Contreras. The Cubs scored one run in the top of the fifth, former Cardinal Carson Kelly singling to drive in Pete Crow-Armstrong who led off the inning with a double, before St. Louis added four more runs in the bottom half of the inning.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Cardinals got another two run home run, this time from Brendan Donovan, scoring Pedro Pagés who walked earlier in the inning. Then, after Masyn Winn walked, Alec Burleson slugged the third homer of the day for the Redbirds to extend the lead more, driving in Winn, for the 5-1 lead.
In the sixth inning, the home runs continued flying out of Busch Stadium off the bats of the Cardinals, as Nolan Gorman hit the fourth home run of the day, driving in Nolan Arenado for the final runs by St. Louis. A sacrifice fly by Justin Turner pushed across the final Cubs run in the seventh inning, scoring Crow-Armstrong.
Matthew LIberatore got the win, improving to 5-6 on the season, for the Cardinals pitching seven innings and giving up two runs on six hits, striking out five and walking one. Contreras was 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored while Arenado was 2-for-4. Each player who had a home run, had just one hit on the night.
St. Louis and Chicago continue their series tomorrow. Michael McGreevy (1-1, 2.70 ERA) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Jameson Taillon (7-4, 3.84 ERA) for the Cubs. First pitch is at 6:45, with action being joined near the start at 6:35 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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