The St. Louis Cardinals rolled to an easy 11-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs in the first game of a doubleheader at Busch Stadium Saturday, scoring nine runs in the first inning to easily get past the visitors. While the Cardinals dominated with the bats in that opening inning, Gold Glove third baseman Nolan Arenado executed a remarkable double play in the top of the first inning that played a key part in St. Louis gaining early momentum in the game.
With Lance Lynn on the mound for the Cardinals, Nico Hoerner opened the game with a walk. Left-handed hitting Michael Busch followed with a ground ball to the left side of the infield. Since Busch is predominantly a pull hitter, Arenado was in the position normally occupied by shortstop Dansby Swanson, who was much closer to second base. Arenado picked up the grounder as he approached second base, and then he stepped on the bag for the force play and threw to first baseman Alec Burleson.
The throw completed the double play and choked off any potential rally by the Cubs, who had won 7 of 8 games prior to Saturday's loss. Seiya Suzuki followed with a home run, but Lance Lynn retired Ian Happ on a fly ball to end the half-inning.
Arenado bails Lynn out of potential trouble
The play by Arenado was unusual because a third baseman is almost never in a position to complete a force play by himself at second base, let alone make the throw to complete the twin killing.
Lynn was both amazed and thrilled by the play that Arenado made against the Cubs. “I don't think I've seen one like that. For him to be able to run across the bag and make that throw across his body like that and get a double play, that was amazing, but that's why he (won) 10 straight Gold Gloves.”
The Cardinals were energized by Arenado's play, and they were able to punish Cubs starting pitcher Hayden Wesneski, who gave up 11 runs on 10 hits in 4.0 innings of work. Only 4 of the runs Wesneski gave up were earned runs, but the pitcher made two errors that helped trigger the 9-run rally.
Burleson capped the inning with a 3-run home run.
Lynn pitched 6.0 innings for the Cardinals and he gave up 5 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs, both of which were earned. He explained his approach when pitching with a big lead.
“You try not to let it change you too much,” Lynn said. “You try to attack each hitter one at a time and you just have to make sure you don't let big innings happen, and you don't walk people. The point is to attack hitters and make them earn it.”
Nolan Arenado had a hit and also reached on a base on balls and scored three runs in addition to making his notable double play in the first inning.
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