By the middle innings at Wrigley Field, the only suspense left was whether the Chicago crowd would sit through the rest of it. Rivalry games usually carry a little friction. This one turned into a Cardinals hitting drill.
St. Louis battered Chicago 17-1 on Friday, riding three-run homers from Nathan Church and Masyn Winn to one of its loudest offensive performances of the season. The Cardinals finished with 17 hits, set season highs in runs and hits, and snapped the Cubs’ five-game winning streak with a steady, inning-by-inning dismantling.
Church opened the scoring in the second with a three-run shot to right. Winn later turned a bad afternoon into a full collapse with another three-run homer in the fourth. Alec Burleson drove in four runs, Winn matched him with four RBIs, and Andre Pallante gave St. Louis 5 2/3 scoreless innings before the bullpen handled the rest.
Church cracks the game open
Church delivered the game’s first major blow in the second inning, and it came after David Peterson looked close to escaping trouble. Peterson retired the first two hitters of the inning before St. Louis started grinding through the frame.
José Fermín doubled, Blaze Jordan reached on an infield single after a comebacker struck Peterson, and Church forced the at-bat deep. On the eighth pitch, Peterson left a curveball over the heart of the plate. Church did not miss it.
The ball carried over the wall in right field, and St. Louis had a 3-0 lead. It was Church’s eighth homer of the season and his third in four games. That stretch has also included eight RBIs, giving the Cardinals another lower-order threat at the exact moment their lineup is starting to look more dangerous.
Peterson stayed in after taking Jordan’s liner off the shoulder, but the next pitch sequence proved costly. His problem was not vague command trouble. He got ahead at times, then failed to finish hitters. Too many pitches stayed in hittable zones, and St. Louis kept extending at-bats until the mistakes arrived.
Winn turns trouble into damage
The Cardinals did not need one huge inning to bury Chicago. Instead, they stacked pressure.
In the third, Nelson Velázquez added a sacrifice fly. Winn followed with an RBI single, and Fermín doubled home another run. That pushed the lead to 6-0 and made the Cubs chase outs instead of rhythm.
The fourth finished the job. Peterson walked the bases loaded, and Burleson punched a two-run single to right. That chased Peterson and tagged him with 10 runs on nine hits in 3 2/3 innings. Bryse Wilson entered with the Cubs looking for a stop. Winn gave them the opposite.
He jumped on an 0-2 curveball and drove it over the wall in left. The lead ballooned to 11-0. Silence settled over the ballpark in the way only a home blowout can make it quiet. St. Louis still had five innings left to hit, and Chicago already looked out of answers.
A fan noted, “51 teams won a game by at least 20 runs since 1900. The Cubs would be the first team to lose by double digits after winning the previous game by 20 since at least 1900.”
Chicago’s whiplash week gets worse
That fan reaction landed because the context was brutal for the Cubs. Chicago had beaten San Diego 23-3 on Wednesday, a game loaded with power and swagger. Less than 48 hours later, the Cubs were on the wrong side of a 16-run loss at home.
This was more than a bad box score. It was whiplash.
Peterson’s outing gave the Cardinals too many chances. The clearest example came in the fourth, when he walked the bases loaded with two outs before Burleson’s single turned traffic into more damage. St. Louis did not need help, but Chicago kept offering it.
Wilson also struggled to slow the game down. Burleson added another two-run single in the fifth, Ivan Herrera drove in two more in the sixth, and Bryan Torres later joined the power show with a solo homer. The Cardinals built a 17-0 lead before Chicago finally scored in the seventh on Bregman’s RBI double.
Pallante keeps the Cubs buried
Pallante’s outing mattered because it kept the afternoon from becoming a loose, high-scoring mess. The right-hander worked 5 2/3 innings, allowed five hits and one walk, and never let Chicago turn the crowd back into a factor.
Chicago had small pockets of traffic but no real surge. Pallante handled the middle innings with the comfort of a pitcher working behind a massive lead, but he still had to throw strikes and avoid free momentum. He did both.
St. Louis has won four of its last five games, and this was the kind of victory that travels well beyond the box score. More than just a tally in the win column, this 17-1 beatdown showed how relentless the bottom half of the Cardinals lineup can be when it forces pitchers to work and punishes mistakes with runners aboard.
A 17-1 scoreline is impossible to ignore. The Cardinals’ methodical plate discipline is what actually buried Chicago. From Church’s eight-pitch at-bat to Winn’s 0-2 homer, St. Louis dictated the game from the first big swing until the final quiet innings at Wrigley.
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FAQS
1. Who hit home runs for the Cardinals against the Cubs?
Nathan Church and Masyn Winn each hit three-run homers. Bryan Torres also added a solo shot.
2. What was the final score of Cardinals vs. Cubs?
The Cardinals beat the Cubs 17-1 at Wrigley Field.
3. Why was the Cubs loss so unusual?
Chicago had beaten San Diego 23-3 in its previous game, then lost by 16 runs to St. Louis.
4. How did Andre Pallante pitch against the Cubs?
Andre Pallante threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings. He allowed five hits and one walk.
5. How many hits did the Cardinals have?
The Cardinals finished with 17 hits, matching their 17 runs in a dominant offensive showing.
I live for the roar of the crowd, the rush of a new city, and the kind of moments that turn into lifelong memories. Sports keep me energized, travel keeps me grounded, and every journey gives me a fresh story to tell.
