Cardinals clinch season series over Cubs thanks to Pete Crow-Armstrong’s gaffe

After two consecutive losses to the Chicago Cubs, the first of which was nothing less than a gut punch, the St. Louis Cardinals starred at the possibility of a four-game sweep. The Cubs had a three-game winning streak going into today and looked to extend it to four games for the first time since before the All-Star break.

Alec Burleson homered in the first inning off Jameson Taillon to spark the Cardinals, but the Cubs regained control. A leadoff walk to Ian Happ and a home run by rookie Michael Busch off Kyle Gibson gave the lead right back to the Cubs. Chicago expanded the lead to 4-1 on an RBI triple by the aforementioned Pete Crow-Armstrong and a sacrifice bunt by Miguel Amaya.

Gibson and Taillon exchanged scoreless innings until the top of the eighth inning. Gibson deserves credit for helping keep the game within reach for the Cardinals. Taillon was impressive at neutralizing the Cardinals’ bats, especially with runners in scoring position.

St. Louis was 0-for-6 with RISP, but the Cardinals still threatened to score with two outs and relief pitcher Porter Hodge on the mound in the top of the eighth. With Burleson at second and Willson Contreras at first, Brendan Donovan reached on an infield single to third baseman Isaac Paredes, who air-mailed the throw to first baseman Busch.

Then came perhaps the play of the game off a pop-up from Nolan Arenado, where Pete Crow-Armstrong called off Hoerner, only to let the ball drop in shallow center field.

In the ninth, Tommy Pham, a great trade deadline acquisition by the Cardinals so far, tripled to lead off the inning, and Lars Nootbaar drove him on on a sacrifice fly to make it 5-4 St. Louis. Ryan Helsley, who blew the save opportunity in Thursday's loss, retired the Cubs in order, and the Cardinals picked up an unbelievable 5-4 win.

Today's win was the Cardinals' seventh victory over the Chicago Cubs, which clinches the season series for the fifth time in the last seven seasons. It was a massive win for the Cardinals, especially given the tough loss on Thursday and after yesterday’s perplexing decision from Oliver Marmol.