Ivan Herrera’s first career RBI pushed the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-3 victory over the visiting Chicago Cubs Saturday.
Herrera’s eighth-inning sacrifice fly broke a 3-3 tie and made a winner of reliever Ryan Helsley (3-0), who got the final five outs for the Cardinals.
Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas struck out nine batters in six innings while allowing one run on four hits.
Cubs starting pitcher Adrian Sampson allowed two runs on four hits and two walks in five innings. Reliever Mark Leiter Jr. (1-2) allowed the two eighth-inning runs to take the loss.
The Cardinals moved ahead in the first inning with Paul Goldschmidt’s single, Nolan Arenado’s double, and Brendan Donovan’s two-run single with two outs.
The Cubs cut the lead to 2-1 in the fifth inning. Patrick Wisdom and Nico Hoerner hit singles, then Wisdom took third base on a flyout and scored on Alfonso Rivas’s sacrifice fly.
Nelson Velazquez followed with a single, but Mikolas struck out Christopher Morel to end the threat.
Arenado greeted reliever Rowan Wick with a single in the sixth inning. Donovan walked and Dylan Carlson lined a RBI double to push the Cardinals’ lead to 3-1.
After Juan Yepez flied out, Scott Effross relieved Wick and struck out Harrison Bader and Lars Nootbaar to limit the damage.
Goldschmidt and Arenado hit two-out singles in the seventh inning off Leiter, but Donovan grounded out to end the inning.
The Cubs tied the game 3-3 in the eighth inning when Rafael Ortega followed Morel’s single with a two-run homer off Giovanny Gallegos.
Helsley walked Contreras, who took second on a passed ball and moved to third on a groundout. After Wisdom walked, Hoerner struck out to strand the runners.
Yepez’s one-out double in the eighth inning triggered the winning rally. Pinch runner Edmundo Sosa took third on a wild pitch, Bader walked. Herrera hit his sacrifice fly and Tommy Edman followed with a RBI single.
–Field Level Media