By MATT PIKE
The St. Louis Cardinals could not slow down Pete Crow-Armstrong, the Cubs center fielder recording four hits including a home run, and the Chicago Cubs beat the Redbirds 6-1 at Busch Stadium to even up their series.
The Cardinals opened up the scoring in the bottom of the fourth inning with their lone run, Alec Burleson hitting an RBI single to drive in JJ Weterholt. The Cubs though tied things up in the fifth inning on an RBI single by Michael Busch, scoring Crow-Armstrong. Chicago took the lead in the sixth inning when Nico Hoerner hit an RBI single, bringing home Miguel Amaya, and extended the lead in the same inning on a sacrifice fly by Busch, this time driving in Dansby Swanson for the 3-1 lead.
In the eighth inning, Crow-Armstrong hit his seventh home run of the season to make it 4-1. Then in the ninth inning, Ian Happ scored on a wild pitch and Crow-Armstrong hit an RBI single to bring home Seiya Suzuki for the final score of the game.
Ryan Fernandez, fell to 1-1 on the season in relief, giving up two unearned runs and walked two while striking out one in one inning after replacing starter Kyle Leahy, who pitched just 4.1 innings giving up one run on six hits, striking out four. At the plate, Weterholt was 3-for-4 with a run scored. Burleson was 2-for-4 with an RBI for the only hits the Cardinals offense could produce.
St. Louis and Chicago wrap up their series tomorrow. Matthew Liberatore (2-3, 4.76 ERA, 53K's) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Jordan Wicks (0-1, 16.62 ERA, 5K's) who will make his second start this season for the Cubs. First pitch is at 6:20pm, coverage beginning at 6:10 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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