The St. Louis Cardinals did most of their damage in two innings to defeat the Chicago Cubs by a 10-4 score. The Cardinals’ win evened the three-game set between both teams and it's safe to say that today’s performance was a stellar one for St. Louis at Busch Stadium.
The Cubs got off to an early lead when Junior Lake homered in the first pitch of the game. However, St. Louis would react and answered with four runs during the bottom of the second inning. A solo shot from Matt Adams and RBI singles from Daniel Descalso, Adam Wainwright and Matt Carpenter built a three-run lead for the reigning NL Champions.
The Cubs pulled one back in the fourth after an RBI from Starlin Castro scored Anthony Rizzo, but St. Louis exploded in the bottom of the same inning where they scored five more runs. Descalso scored on an RBI single from Carpenter and Wainwright later scored on another RBI single, this time from Kolten Wong.
Carpenter added another run after Matt Holiday reached on a fielder’s choice to third. Both Wong and Holiday scored on a two-RBI single from Jon Jay and suddenly the Cardinals had a huge lead after five innings.
The Cubs showed some signs of life in the sixth after they scored two runs – Luis Valbuena scored on an RBI double from Schierholtz and the outfielder later crossed home plate after another double-bagger from Ryan Sweeney – but Yadier Molina cut all the momentum when he grounded out but allowed Holiday to score another run.
St. Louis ended up topping Chicago by an expressive 10-4 score. That was the differential that also existed on the field as the Cardinals simply dominated their opposition in a masterful offensive performance.