Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol speaks with the media on Sunday, July 14, 2024, after a loss to the Cubs at Busch Stadium. (Video by Ethan Erickson, Post-Dispatch)
The Cardinals pitchers gave up nearly as many home runs as the Cardinals hitters had hits in the final game before the MLB All-Star break on Sunday afternoon.
Instead of winning the final three games before the break and capturing a series win against their rivals the Chicago Cubs, the Cardinals had to settle for a series split.
After the Cardinals swept Saturday’s doubleheader between the teams, the Cubs unleashed a seven-home run barrage that included four home runs off Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas in an 8-3 loss in front of an announced crowd of 39,314 in the finale of a four-game series at Busch Stadium.
The six home runs by the Cubs tied the most hit by a team at Busch Stadium (version three) in a single game.
The Cardinals (50-46) had eight hits in the loss. Alec Burleson went 2 for 4 with a double and his 17th home run of the season, which tied him for the team lead with Nolan Gorman. Brendan Donovan (3 for 3, walk) had three of the team’s seven hits.
Mikolas (7-8) allowed six runs on eight hits, including four home runs, in 5 1/3 innings. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out two.
Cardinals reliever Andrew Kittredge also allowed two home runs in the eighth inning.
Donovan bats cleanup
Donovan slid into the No. 4 spot in the batting order for the first time this season.
The left-handed hitting Donovan entered the day leading the Cardinals in hits (95) and multi-hit games (27). He also began the day ranked third on the club in RBIs (45) behind Burleson (52) and Gorman (47).
Donovan swatted a single to start the second inning, the Cardinals’ first hit of the game, and scored as part of a two-run inning.
After Donovan’s first-inning single, Nolan Arenado singled to put runners on first and third. Arenado tagged up and advanced to second on Gorman’s fly ball to the outfield after Donovan drew a throw home by Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.
With two outs, Pages lined a ball off the base of the wall in left field and drove in Donovan and Arenado. That gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
Cubs answer quickly against Mikolas
The Cubs (47-51) answered right back and scored two runs in the top of the third inning.
The first run came two batters into the inning when the left-handed hitting Crow-Armstrong reached down and got the barrel of his bat on an 0-2 sweeper well below the strike zone and clubbed it an estimated 403 feet to right field.
Mikolas gave up a double to the next batter, Nico Hoerner, and Hoerner scored from second base on a two-out single by Seiya Suzuki on a ground ball that the second baseman Gorman got a glove on in shallow right field. Gorman had been aligned close to second base when the pitch was thrown.
Cubs hitters turn Busch into a launching pad
After Crow-Armstrong’s home run in the third inning, they blasted two more homers in the fifth inning against Mikolas.
Mikolas got the first batter of the fifth, Miles Mastrobuoni, to hit a grounder to second base for the first out. Then Tomas Nido smacked a 2-1 fastball on the outside corner for an opposite-field home run. Nido’s homer gave the Cubs their first lead of the game, 3-2, and gave him his third home run of the season.
The next batter, Crow-Armstrong, chased another breaking ball from Mikolas out of the strike zone. This time, Crow-Armstrong mashed the 1-1 curveball an estimated 411 feet to center field where it landed on the grass berm beyond the outfield wall.
Crow-Armstrong’s second home run of the day – in two at-bats – gave the Cubs a 4-2 lead.
Mikolas allowed a fourth home run to Christopher Morel, the last batter Mikolas faced, in the sixth inning. Suzuki singled to start the sixth, and Morel bashed a first-pitch fastball into the left field stands for a two-run homer.
Mikolas allowed three home runs in 29 2/3 innings in his five June starts, but he allowed four in fewer than six innings on Sunday.
Crow-Armstrong became the first opposing hitter batting in the No. 9 hole in the order to hit two home runs against the Cardinal since Ryan Lavarnway did so on July 19, 2019.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol speaks with the media on Sunday, July 14, 2024, after a loss to the Cubs at Busch Stadium. (Video by Ethan Eri…
ºüÀêÊÓƵ Cardinals second baseman Nolan Gorman misses a ground ball in the third inning during a game against the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium in ºüÀêÊÓƵ on Sunday, July 14, 2024.