Willson Contreras is feeling good after the deadline, and it’s nice to see him crushing the ball again. Buuuuut the early lead he helped the Cubs build in this one didn’t last, and the Cardinals walked if off in the 9th. How nice for them.
The talk will be about how the Cubs blew up their bullpen at the deadline and thus they couldn’t hold a lead today, but that’s not really how it was. You had Marcus Stroman giving up three late, and then Erich Uelmen allowing one for the walk-off. It happens.
Through six innings, Stroman was cruising. There was a decent bit of hard contact, but it was all on the ground, which is Stroman’s thing. The guys who weren’t grounding out were striking out. Twice through the order was about as good as it gets.
… and then the Cardinals started elevating that third time through, and Stroman got ROCKED in the 7th. It was wholly fine that he’d started the inning, and even after the back-to-back homers to open it up, I kinda understand letting him go a bit more. But David Ross might’ve been a batter or two too slow to get someone up in the bullpen, and a few more rockets later, Stroman had given up three runs, and with it the Cubs’ 3-0 lead.
In the 9th, Erich Uelmen got wild, walked two, and Lars Nootbar walked it off with a single. Game two comes tonight.
