ST. LOUIS -- Ben Brown was moved into the Cubs' starting rotation as a temporary solution to plug a hole created by a rash of injuries. He's making a convincing case that he might be more of a permanent fixture.
Brown matched a career-high seven innings, allowing just one run on three hits and one walk as the Cubs beat the Cardinals, 6-1, on Saturday night at Busch Stadium to win for the third time in their past four games.
“It's exciting,” Brown said. “It's just something to build off of, but again, you're never as good as you think you are, never as bad as you think you are, and just got to stay pretty even-keeled.”
Brown filled the strike zone, throwing 56 of his 82 pitches for strikes.
The right-hander has been nearly unhittable in his five starts, improving to 1-1 with a 1.73 ERA. Two of those starts were scoreless.
Brown was brilliant the first time through the Cardinals' order. He needed just 27 pitches, 22 of which were strikes, to retire the first nine batters he faced.
“You can't defend the walk, and, obviously, you like the pitcher's odds when they're ahead in the zone,” Brown said. “Just trying to get in leverage counts as much as I can, just producing good results.”
Brown picked up a strikeout in each of his first three innings, blowing a four-seam fastball by Iván Herrera in the first and using his knuckle curve to get Nolan Gorman looking in the second and a swing and miss by Jimmy Crooks in the third.
Brown finally ran into trouble in the fourth, surrendering a leadoff single to JJ Wetherholt after he worked the first three-ball count of the game for the Cardinals. Alec Burleson drove home Wetherholt with a single to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead.
Brown got back into rhythm, retiring the Cardinals in order in the fifth, and then got out of a sixth-inning jam thanks to a 5-3 double play turned by Alex Bregman.
The key to Brown’s success this season as a starter has been the addition of a changeup and sinker to his arsenal to supplement a dominant four-seam fastball and knuckle curve. That was on display as he finished his outing by striking out Gorman with the changeup.
“I thought the last at-bat to Gorman was just a maybe a little symbolic of how Ben's changed,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “He threw four changeups to Gorman, and that's just something that couldn't happen last year, right? It wasn't going to happen, and just tip of the cap to how he's improved, and that was a real sign in there.”
Nine of the batters Brown faced swung at either the first or second pitch.
“It's tough to defend that,” Brown said. “I think you're kind of relying on them to get themselves out at that point, you know. I'm going to keep throwing strikes; that's just the reality of the game, you got to throw strikes. So they're kind of just up there hacking, but just sometimes results will go well, and sometimes they won't.”
Pete Crow-Armstrong backed up Brown with his bat and his glove. Crow-Armstrong had four hits – including a Statcast-projected 444-foot solo home run in the eighth inning – reached five times, scored twice and drove in a pair of runs to spark the offense. He also made a dazzling sliding catch on a Jordan Walker line drive to end the game.
Michael Busch drove in a pair of runs, and Alex Bregman extended his hitting streak to 10 games, the longest active streak in the Major Leagues.