Cardinals 8, Cubs 6: Well, that was ugly, despite another great game from Michael Busch

A stirring comeback went for naught when the Cubs bullpen blew up in the eighth.

The Cubs bullpen has been so good this year that having an inning like the one Brad Keller had in the eighth inning of the Cubs’ 8-6 loss to the Cardinals is, frankly, shocking.

It turned on one play in that inning, and I’ll get to that, but first things first.

The Drew Pomeranz opener strategy, which had worked well twice before this year, didn’t. Pomeranz issued a pair of walks and a single and the Cardinals kept fouling off pitches and made him throw 25 pitches while recording only one out. That forced Chris Flexen into the game likely before Craig Counsell wanted to use him. With the bases loaded, Flexen gave up a single to Thomas Saggese that scored two runs.

That was the end of Pomeranz’ 0.00 ERA for the season — you knew it couldn’t last forever — and also this, from BCB’s JohnW53:

Drew Pomeranz’s start was the 201st by a Cubs pitcher since 1901 or one out or fewer. It was just the 10th this century.

The others, in order: Julian Tavarez (2001), Steve Smyth (2002), Randy Wells (2010), Carlos Silva (2010), Ryan Dempster (2011), Brett Anderson (2017), Jaime Garcia (2018), Alec Mills (2022) and Drew Smyly (Oct. 1, 2023).

All got one out except Wells, who gave up five runs on six hits. Mills was injured after facing two batters. All the others faced at least four. Dempster faced 10.

Flexen settled down and wound up throwing 3⅔ innings and allowing just one further run, a home run by Nolan Gorman leading off the fourth. In the third, Flexen had some defensive help from Matt Shaw [VIDEO].

Meanwhile, the Cubs had a home run of their own, another one from Michael Busch leading off the second [VIDEO].

For Busch, that was his fourth home run in two games, and here’s more on that from BCB’s JohnW53:

A Cub has hit three home runs in a game 42 times. Michael Busch today became only the seventh to hit a homer in his next game. The previous six:

Ernie Banks, 1955
Lee Walls, 1958
Dave Kingman, 1978
Brant Brown, 1998
Sammy Sosa, 2002
Moises Alou, 2003

Six more times, a Cub homered in the game before the one in which he homered three times. Billy Williams, in 1968, and Kingman, in 1979, hit two homers in the game prior to smacking three. In 1978, Kingman homered once in the games both before and after his game with three.

It was also just the second home run this year by Busch off a lefthander. During this homestand Busch is now batting .550/.571/1.200 (11-for-20) with a double and four home runs. Sounds like a National League Player of the Week candidate to me.

Anyway, it’s 3-1 Cardinals heading to the bottom of the fourth. Busch led off again and doubled. Nico Hoerner walked and both runners moved up on a wild pitch.

Busch then headed home on this grounder by Shaw, a contact play, and was thrown out [VIDEO].

Nico and Shaw executed a double steal, putting runners in scoring position again [VIDEO].

Ian Happ’s ground ball to third made it 3-2 [VIDEO].

Ryan Brasier threw a scoreless fifth, helped out by an inning-ending double play, and Caleb Thielbar had a 1-2-3 sixth.

Then the Cubs took the lead in the bottom of the sixth. Kelly bounced a ball into the ivy in center field for a double and took third on a single by Busch, his third hit of the game.

Nico’s single tied the game 3-3 [VIDEO].

Busch held at third on that hit, and then scored the lead run on this wild pitch [VIDEO].

Ryan Pressly threw a scoreless seventh, helped out by yet another Cubs double play. And then the Cubs extended the lead to 5-3 on a home run by Kelly, his 11th [VIDEO].

Keller entered to throw the eighth. He’s been really good this year, as you know. And he started the eighth all right, with a fly to center by old friend Willson Contreras. Alec Burleson then homered to make it 5-4 and a single by Saggese — who only was in this game because Nolan Arenado was scratched with a shoulder issue — put the tying run on base.

Lars Nootbaar then laid down a bunt. This should have been an easy out, the second of the inning, putting a runner on second. Except… this happened [VIDEO].

I’m not sure whose play that is — probably Kelly’s — but neither Kelly nor Keller could make the play and Nootbaar was given a hit.

Obviously sequencing would have been different, but the next hitter, Gorman, hit a ball that’s likely an out if there’s a runner on second and two out instead of first and second with one out. The inning could have been over. Instead, the tying run scored and two Cardinals are still on base and, well, Keller must have been a bit rattled by then because Yohel Pozo put a ball on Waveland for a three-run homer.

Hey, you know what, things like this happen every once in a while even to good teams.

And the Cubs did attempt to mount a comeback. With two out in the eighth, Tucker reached on catcher’s interference. Seiya Suzuki scored Tucker with this double [VIDEO].

So Pete Crow-Armstrong came to the plate as the potential tying run with chants of “PCA! PCA!” at Wrigley Field… but he bounced out to first base and that was that. The Cubs went down 1-2-3 in the ninth to Ryan Helsley, and the four-game winning streak came to an end.