ST. LOUIS (AP) — Yan Gomes and Ian Happ homered and the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-1 on Saturday night for their eighth straight victory.
“It's been fun,” Cubs starting pitcher Jamieson Taillon said. “We’re going to need everyone at some point. This isn’t built around one or two superstars. This is a deep roster, and I think that’s one of our strengths.
"So, right now, it does feel like everyone’s contributing. Starters keeping us in the game, bullpen locking it down, defense playing great, the lineup seems really long right now. I wouldn’t want to face us.”
Taillon (5-6) allowed a run on two hits and four walks and struck out four in seven innings.
“You come to a new place to try to prove a little bit the contract, all of those little things,” manager David Ross said about Taillon. “I think he stayed really healthy mentally. He’s really impacted our group in a great way off the field.”
Adam Wainwright (3-5) took the mound after a rain delay of 1 hour, 47 minutes and allowed four runs on seven hits and walked three batters. The 41-year-old Wainwright is 0-4 with a 10.89 ERA in his last five starts after winning his 198th career game June 17 at the New York Mets.
“I felt good out there," Wainwright said. “I felt in control most of the time, got the ball on the ground again which was good.”
Mike Tauchmann went 3 for 4 with a seventh-inning RBI double to right field off Drew VerHagen, a night after scaling the center field fence to rob Alec Burleson of a potential winning home run.
Lars Nootbaar singled, Nolan Gorman walked, and Willson Contreras was hit by a pitch to load the bases in the eighth inning against Mark Leiter Jr. before Javier Assad got Jordan Walker to weakly ground out to the pitcher end the threat.
“You want him in that situation for a lot of different reasons,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said about Walker. “He's going to be in those a lot throughout his career, and you just build off of it. You're not going to come through every time, and he understands that.”
Gomes hit a two-run home run to center field, his ninth of the season, just past the outstretched glove of Dylan Carlson in the fourth inning to give Chicago a 4-1 lead.
Happ drove in Tauchmann when he hit his 10th of the season into the right-center field bleachers in the third inning to put Chicago on top 2-1. Happ is 14 for 36 (.389) with seven home runs in his career against Wainwright.
Brendan Donovan led off the bottom of the first with a single to right field and scored on Nootbaar's sacrifice fly to give the lead.
TRAINERS' ROOM
Cubs: Activated third baseman Nick Madrigal (right hamstring strain) from the 10-day injured list and optioned infielder Miles Mastrobuoni to Triple-A Iowa. Madrigal started at third base and went 2 for 4.
Cardinals: INF/OF Tommy Edman (right wrist inflammation) started at shortstop and went 1 for 5 for triple-A Memphis Saturday night to begin a rehabilitation assignment. Edman is expected to start in center field for Memphis on Sunday and could be activated from the injured list prior to Tuesday’s game versus Minnesota.
UP NEXT
Cubs RHP Kyle Hendricks (4-4, 3.45 ERA) is 13-3 with a 2.69 ERA in 25 career starts against St. Louis. He’ll be opposed by LHP Steven Matz (1-7, 4.34 ERA) who is 1-0 with a 2.18 ERA in four starts since returning to the starting rotation on July 9. ___
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