In the morning after the final out ended a baseball extravaganza, I continued to marvel at the spectacular, spellbinding, suspenseful, and sensational thriller of a ballgame between the Cubs and Cardinals.
The teams gave us an extraordinary game on an otherwise ordinary Tuesday night on the June calendar. This highly entertaining engagement elevated one of the finest, historical rivalries in American team sports.
This passionate showdown reminded us of how special Cards-Cubs can be. The first-pitch temperature was 93 degrees. But watching this game, it felt more like 103 degrees, because of the feverish hold on our attention.
The Cardinals overcame a three-run deficit, took a three-run lead, and then held on until the final play to take an 8-7 victory from the theater to the clubhouse.
This drama lasted 2 hours and 31 minutes.
I would argue it lasted much longer than that.
At least with my body clock. I’m an early riser each morning (5:15 a.m.) and don’t normally stay up past 11:30 p.m. But I couldn’t get to sleep before Tuesday turned into Wednesday, with the lingering excitement of watching that game pushing me a couple of hours closer to the noisy, cruel wake-up alarm. I doubled up on the coffee.
The Cardinals and Brewers are 2 and ½ games behind the first-place but discombobulated Cubs in the NL Central standings.
I would like to share some thoughts:
1) The Cardinals are good and better than I thought. The Cubs aren’t as good as their superpower status this season. More on this later.
2) You know what made me happy? Just watching the crowd shots on TV, the reactions of fans inside the ballpark, and the back-and-forth emotions. Cards fans happy. Cubs fans frustrated. Cubs fans jumping for joy. Cardinals fans looking worried. Cards fans looking pleased, feeling confident. Cubs fans looking down, and feeling disappointed. And that was just the first five innings.
3) I kinda feel sorry for the folks who can’t put aside their grievances with ownership-management to come down to the ballpark and enjoy watching a Cardinals team that represents the qualities St. Louis baseball fans have traditionally embraced. Hey, these fans can stick with their boycott, but it’s a shame they’re missing out on a good time. That’s their choice. It is also their loss.
4) The exquisite gem of a defensive play handled by third baseman Nolan Arenado to end the game … perfection. After cutting to his left to reach the bouncing ground ball - with distractions all around him – Arenado made a bare-handed pickup and threw a quick-strike dart to first baseman Willson Contreras. The game was on the line. Dansby Swanson, who hit that hopping ball to Nado, was a desperate man in his sprint to beat the throw. But Arenado got him by a half-step.
5) If Arenado had misread the play at all, if he had made a slightly wrong move in his path to the ball, if he had fumbled the pickup for one second, if he had twitched or hesitated before releasing the throw, if his throw had lacked just a little zip or accuracy … Well, Swanson has an infield single, the runner scores from third to tie the game 8-8, and the Cubs were alive with an opportunity to score and take the lead and win it in nine innings. Arenado had to be perfect on that play. Absolutely perfect. He had the eyes, the hands, the vision and the skill of a master diamond cutter. There’s a reason why this man has 10 gold gloves and six platinum gloves in his trophy room at home. Or maybe he has a museum.
6) Masyn Winn made the No. 1 baserunning play of the season by a Cardinal to score from second base on a sacrifice fly to deep center. It was the fourth inning. The runway was cleared for Winn when Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong screwed up by thinking he’d just caught the third out of the inning. PCA’s confusion and lag time gave Winn the opening he needed to take off like Cool Papa Bell and streak through the summer swelter, and steal a run with his combination of speed, determination and astute instincts. When Winn went flying in head first to touch home plate – it proved to be the winning run – Enos Slaughter had to be smiling from baseball heaven.
7) In Tuesday’s Redbird Review, I wrote a note about Alec Burleson’s improved defensive play in right field. Hours later, he made two adventurous catches that qualified as web gems. Actually, one of the plays was a web jam … as in Burly becoming entangled in a screen that protects fans from foul balls close to right field. Fortunately for the fans seated nearby, the screen protected them from harm as Burly went airborne like some massive frisbee dog to track the catch.
8) First Burleson left his feet to scoop a diving catch in the fifth inning. The Cubs had two out and two runners on. Burly went low, killed a patch of outfield lawn grass and snatched a hit away from Crow-Armstrong to terminate the scoring threat. The baseball didn’t have a chance when Burly went after it like a Komodo dragon chasing a live meal in the wilds of Indonesia. Or something like that.
In a seventh-inning encore, Burly went charging into foul territory in pursuit of an inning-ending catch. There were no brakes to apply. Burleson just flung himself into the safeguard netting, and came up with a successful capture of his target. Burleson scraped his face on the netting. He got two shirt buttons tangled in the netting. How did this giant Mississippi River catfish end up in that net?
The net fought Burly … but Burly won. He made a fantastic catch. And he made a memorable video – because we’ll be seeing that replay for many years. The Legend of Burly continues. We’re having a Burly summer. And it’s fun.
9) Here’s a little housekeeping if you don’t mind … The Cardinals are 7-1 in their last eight games, 8-2 in their last 10, and their 44-36 record and .550 winning percentage are tied with Milwaukee for 10th best in the majors and No. 6 in the National League … the Cardinals trailed the Cubs by 7 full games on June 17 and have reduced Chicago’s lead to 2 and ½ games in the last eight days …
BIRD BYTES!
– Great quote from Nolan Arenado after Tuesday’s exciting win:
“I didn’t expect us to be winning like this, at this point,” Nado told reporters. “I expected us to play hard, I thought we were going to be good defensively and I thought our pitching would be fine. Just seeing everyone one-through-nine contributing, I mean I like playing baseball like this, against the Cubs, where games matter.
“As you get older, that’s what you want. You don’t want to play games just to play games. Individually, I’ve accomplished some things in this game and I want to accomplish something team-oriented and special and win a World Series. Games like this, it’s easy to wake up for. This is the most excited [that] I’ve come to the ballpark for – this series – in about two years.”
— Nado loves being a Cardinal. I love seeing him play for the Cardinals, because he plays such magnificent defense and still has enough danger in his bat to come through with big hits. Arenado is hitting well in June, carrying a .284 batting average, .444 slugging percentage, four homers and 12 RBIs and 13 runs scored into Wednesday’s game.
— Thanks to Arenado’s best-in-show defense, closer Ryan Helsley escaped from a scary situation in the 9th inning. He threw his slider more this time, but the two hits (singles) by the Cubs in the ninth came against Helsley’s four-seam fastball. So let’s update: this season opponents have feasted on Helsley’s four-seamer seam for a .436 batting average and .582 slug. Helsley was credited with his 15th save of the season – but in reality, that save was locked down by Arenado.
— In battering Chicago’s starting pitchers in the first two games of the series, the St. Louis hitters could have been arrested for assault. Here are the grisly details: in 9 combined innings pitched Ben Brown and Jameson Taillon were bushwhacked for 16 earned runs and 17 hits. Ten of the 17 hits were drilled for extra bases. The Cardinals walloped seven homers and three doubles on pitches grooved by Brown and Taillon – and batted .405 with a .976 slugging percentage against them.
— During their 1-5 stretch through Tuesday Cubs starting pitchers have been overpowered for 33 earned runs and 14 homers in 28 winnings of work. That translates into a 10.61 ERA and .764 slugging percentage.
— The Cardinals have seven home runs in the first two games of the series. During the expansion era, which began in 1961, the Cards have swatted seven or more home runs against the Cubs in a two-game binge only 11 times. It last happened on Sept. 24-25 at Wrigley Field in 2021. STL clubbed eight homers in those two games at Wrigley.
– Lars Nootbaar’s hitting health is robust again. After a slump/famine Nootbaar has hit .280 with a 1.099 OPS in his last seven games in a comeback that includes three homers, a double, seven RBIs and four runs scored. Nootbaar has punished the Cubs for a two-run homer in each of the first two games of this series. The Cardinals are 10-0 this season when Nootbaar homers in a game. And they are 28-12 when he reaches base at least twice in a game. Nootbaar has a lot of impact in making this offense go.
– After a slow start to 2024, Nolan Gorman is moving nicely on the runway. We could even say that he’s taking flight. In 73 plate appearances covering his last 22 games, Gorman has a .297 average with five homers, two doubles and a triple for a .609 slugging percentage and .993 OPS. He’s driven in 12 runs and scored 11 times over the 22 games.
– Gorman has homered in each of the first two games against the Cubs. This is the first time he’s gone deep in consecutive games all season. Gorman had two home runs – total – in his first 38 games of 2025. And now he has two home runs – total – in his last two games. His current slugging percentage (.418) puts him above .400 in slug this season for only the second time since April 23.
– Third note on Gorman: with his recent upswing on offense, Gorman now has an above-average hitting performance for the season. His 105 OPS+ is five percent above league average offensively. Is that great? No, and I’m not saying it is. But this dude was almost helpless at the plate until late May. Gorman hasn’t been above league average overall for a season since his 116 OPS+ in 2023.
— Fourth and final note on Gorman for today: for all of his whiff-swings and strikeouts and extreme slumps during his MLB career, Gorman is above average overall (103 OPS+) for his career. His career slugging percentage is .433, his career OPS is .737, and he’s hit a home run every 18.1 at-bats. By the way, Gorman’s .433 career slug is notable for this reason: he came to the majors in 2022, and the overall MLB slugging percentage since then is .401. Gorman has slugged 42 points higher than the MLB average during his time in the majors. He’s played only 366 big-league games and just turned 25 years old.
— The Cardinals are 15-7 in their last 22 games determined by a one-run margin. Their lively response to the Cubs 5-2 lead in Tuesday’s tilt gave the Cardinals their 20th comeback win of the season. The only NL teams with more comeback victories than St. Louis this series are the Dodgers (30), Giants (22), and Cubs (21.)
— In going 7-1 in their last eight games the Cards have scored an average of 6.8 runs per game and struck for 15 home runs and a .469 slugging percentage.
— With the two wins over the Cubs, the Cardinals are 26-15 (.634) at Busch Stadium this season. And they continue to splurge on offense at home. Through Tuesday the Cardinals rank 3rd among the 15 NL teams in runs scored at home. And they’re in the top five of the NL in batting average, onbase percentage, slugging and OPS. Another reason for their success at home? The Cardinals are winning the home-run derby. STL batters have bombed 44 home runs at Busch this season, the fifth-highest count by an NL team at home. But the St. Louis pitchers have allowed only 30 home runs at Busch – the third-lowest HRs allowed at home by an NL team. That +14 home-run differential at Busch is an important factor in the success.
— When the Redbirds hit exactly one home run in a game at Busch this season they are 8-5. When they hit two or more home runs in a home game, the Cards are 9-3 for a .750 winning percentage.
CARDS: UNDERRATED?
CUBS: OVERRATED?
Through Tuesday night only 2 and ½ games separated Chicago and St. Louis in the standings. That reflects well on the Cardinals because the Cubs have played a much easier schedule.
I looked at each team’s record against the MLB teams that are in the bottom seven in overall winning percentage.
Those stinky teams are the Rockies, White Sox, A’s, Pirates, Marlins, Nationals and Orioles. Through Tuesday, that group of seven were collectively 143 games under .500. The Orioles were nine games under .500. The other six ranged from 13 games under .500 to 43 games under .500.
The Cubs have had a lot of games, 25, against the seven weakest teams in the majors. And it’s no surprise to see the Cubs with a 15-5 record against the bottom seven. The .800 winning percentage in those games looks good for the Cubs. The good teams are supposed to beat up the bad teams.
But here’s the thing. The Cardinals have the same .800 winning percentage against the seven worst teams in MLB. But unlike the Cubs, who stacked victories in 25 games against the losingest teams, the Cardinals have played only 15 games against the sorriest assortment of teams in the majors. And the Cardinals have done very well against them, going 12-3.
The point: considering that St. Louis has played 10 fewer games than the Cubs in the matchups against the most hapless teams, the Cardinals have done a damn good job to be only 2 and ½ games in back of the Cubs.
OK, but what about the records against opponents that currently rank in the top 10 in MLB for winning percentage? Actually, it’s the top 11 because the Cardinals and Brewers are tied for 10th with a .550 winning percentage.
Here’s what I learned about the Cubs and the Cardinals when they’ve gone up against the teams that have a top 11 winning percentage so far in 2025.
Cubs: 12-17
Cardinals: 16-15
To recap: the Cubs have beaten the drivel out of the seven most pathetic teams this season … and have had 25 games to do so. The Cardinals have also roughed up the gang of the worst seven … but have had 10 fewer games than the Cubs against the weak-link teams.
But when the Cubs and Cardinals match up against opponents that rank among the top 11 in winning percentage through June 24, it looks like this: St. Louis, .516 winning percentage. Chicago: .414 winning pct.
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. You can access all of his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STLSportsCentral, catch him weekdays on the “Gashouse Gang” or “Redbird Rush Hour” on KMOX (104.1-FM and 1120-AM0 and he is a regular guest on the “Cardinal Territory” video show hosted by Katie Woo of The Athletic.