ST. LOUIS (AP) Paul Goldschmidt homered twice and Sonny Gray tossed five scoreless innings to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 4-3 on Sunday night in game delayed more than 2 1/2 hours at the start by rain.
St. Louis has won five in a row for the first time since winning six straight from July 15-20, 2023, and has won 10 of its last 12.
“It was a good team effort,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “The bottom line, guys are stepping up and contributing. Different guys are coming in and doing their jobs. It’s coming together very well from all sides of the game. Baserunning, defense, pitching and hitting, it’s coming together, and it’s led to some wins.”
After the game started at 8:43 p.m. local time following a 2-hour, 33-minute rain delay, Gray (7-2) had another solid outing for the Cardinals. He allowed one hit and struck out eight before being removed after throwing just 74 pitches.
“With the delay, it was a long day,” Marmol said. “Sonnys got a pretty extensive routine and throughout the day just couldn’t get his lower half and loose during that game once it started. I didn’t want to push through it, so I called it for him. He did his job.”
Chicago mounted a late rally against Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley in the ninth. Ian Happ led off with his second homer of the game to make it a one-run game. Nick Madrigal and Mike Tauchmann each hit two-out singles before Seiya Suzuki hit a flyout to deep right-center field to give Helsley his 17th save to tie Clevelands Emmanuel Clase for the major league lead.
“We had great at-bats in the eight and the ninth,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “Essentially five of the six outs are well-hit baseballs. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find holes on five of those balls. That’s a little frustrating, but it’s good to get Ian, hopefully, swinging it well and that’s a big plus for the offense going forward.”
Up Next: RHP Lance Lynn (2-2, 3.68 ERA) opposes Reds LHP Nick Lodolo (3-2, 3.34 ERA) in the first game of a three-game series in Cincinnati on Monday as the Cardinals start a season-high nine-game road trip. The Game will be broadcast live on KTLO FM with game starting at 2:15 with Ameren Total Access.
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