Relentless 2-out attack leads Cardinals to historic rout of rival Cubs

CHICAGO -- Oliver Marmol wasn't talking about the home runs.

Not Masyn Winn's three-run blast. Not Nathan Church's towering drive into the right-field bleachers. Not Bryan Torres adding one more for good measure.

He was talking about the pitches the Cardinals didn't swing at.

"The guys just didn't give anything away," Marmol said.

On a day when St. Louis piled up a season-high 17 runs, the manager's favorite plate appearances might've been the ones that ended with walks.

The Cardinals didn't simply overpower the Cubs in Friday's 17-1 rout at Wrigley Field. They exhausted them.

Every inning felt like another test of patience. Another parade of hitters refusing to chase. Another baserunner forcing the pitcher to work from the stretch. By the time it was over, St. Louis had turned one of baseball's iconic ballparks into an assembly line of quality at-bats, posting its highest run total since scoring 18 against Milwaukee on May 15, 2023.

"We're aggressive," José Fermín said. "We're getting good pitches to hit, we're not missing them. We kept the line moving."

That line never seemed to stop moving.

The Cardinals scored in six consecutive innings, collecting 17 hits while drawing four walks. Five different players drove in at least two runs, the club's most in a game since Sept. 30, 2023. Remarkably, 13 of their runs crossed the plate with two outs, the franchise's most two-out RBIs in a game since MLB began expanding in 1961, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

It wasn't one swing. It wasn't one inning. It was wave after wave.

Church ignited the afternoon in the second inning, grinding through an eight-pitch at-bat before jumping on a hanging curveball for a three-run homer. The rookie's recent surge has come with a noticeably different approach, something Marmol believes is no coincidence.

"He's done a much better job of just controlling the strike zone and honing in on the pitches that he's trying to hunt," Marmol said. "He's made some really good progress."

The Cardinals never let Cubs left-hander David Peterson settle in. Having seen him less than a month earlier while he was still with the Mets, hitters appeared to arrive with a clear plan. Peterson was chased after just 3 2/3 innings, charged with 10 earned runs as St. Louis repeatedly forced him back into the strike zone before doing damage.

"When I say they didn't give in, that's what I mean," Marmol said. "They didn't chase guys around. They made them come into the zone, and when they did, they put some really good swings on it."

That discipline became contagious.

Blaze Jordan watched the hitters in front of him. Church fed off Jordan. Fermín kept finding himself on base. Every rally seemed to hand the baton to the next hitter instead of asking someone to play hero.

"When the guy gets on in front of you, you just try to do your job," Jordan said. "It just keeps passing on and passing on."

Church described it even more simply.

"We just did a really good job not giving in," he said. "One run keeps happening, then another run keeps happening."

Lost amid the offensive eruption was another important afternoon from Andre Pallante, who gave the Cardinals exactly what they needed one day after the bullpen covered more than eight innings in Atlanta. Armed with an early lead that continued to grow, Pallante attacked from the first pitch, working 5 2/3 scoreless innings to earn his 10th victory.

Still, this afternoon belonged to the lineup.

The Cardinals had landed in Chicago in the middle of the night following Thursday night’s win in Atlanta. A quick turnaround, little sleep and an afternoon game could have made for a sluggish start.

Instead, it produced one of the most complete offensive performances of the season.

"You know it's going to be hard," Marmol said. "You know the schedule is going to be difficult. You have to enjoy the hell out of it and keep going."

The Cardinals did far more than keep going. They never stopped.