Cubs' bats provide silver lining from tough night in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS -- The baseball that Seiya Suzuki launched in the ninth inning on Saturday night looked promising off the bat. According to the Statcast metrics, the deep fly to left-center field would have been a home run in exactly one Major League ballpark: Wrigley Field.

The Cubs were not in the Friendly Confines, but rather the rival grounds of Busch Stadium, where Cardinals left fielder Brendan Donovan glided through the gap to catch Suzuki’s attempt at a go-ahead, three-run blast. Two batters later, Chicago’s comeback bid ended and a 7-6 defeat was in the books.

“I really thought we were going to pull that out,” Cubs starter Jameson Taillon said. “That was pretty incredible. It’s one of those things where we lost, but hopefully that’s something we can take forward and build off.”

Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s loss in St. Louis.

1. Signs off life from the offense
The Cubs arrived in St. Louis stuck in a prolonged offensive drought. The North Siders’ shutout loss on Thursday was the fifth time they had been blanked in the past 25 games, during which the lineup hit .199 with a .608 OPS and 3.1 runs per game overall.

“We have good hitters,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said prior to Friday’s rainout at Busch Stadium. “I'm not very worried about the offense.”

The lineup looked much better on Saturday night.

The three-run outburst in the fourth marked the first inning with at least three runs scored for the Cubs since May 17 (eighth inning). The six runs and 12 hits were both the most in a game for Chicago since a 7-1 win on May 15 in Atlanta.

The Cubs ended the night 5-for-13 with runners in scoring position and scored four runs with two outs. That included a two-out, two-run double off the wall in left for Nico Hoerner in the fourth. Cody Bellinger later capped off a two-run ninth against closer Ryan Helsley with a two-out, RBI single.

“We had a pretty good night offensively,” Counsell said. “We had chances -- other chances, too. We definitely created more pressure tonight.”

2. Leiter experienced a rare off night
Taillon had a simple way to sum up how righty Mark Leiter Jr. has pitched out of the Cubs’ bullpen for the past two seasons.

“He's pretty automatic,” said the Cubs starter.

So, when Counsell handed the ball to Leiter with a 4-3 lead in the eighth, it would have been hard to predict what happened next. After giving up four runs (two earned) in his first 20 appearances of the season overall, Leiter was charged with all four Cardinals runs that crossed the plate in the decisive frame Saturday night.

Leiter allowed consecutive soft singles to Alec Burleson and Nolan Gorman before retiring the next two batters he faced. That set up a crucial battle with veteran Matt Carpenter, who came off the bench as a pinch-hitter. Carpenter got his bat on an outside sinker and sent another soft liner into right, igniting St. Louis’ rally.

All three of those hits came with exit velocities below 85 mph, per Statcast. Donovan followed with a well-struck, ground-ball single that added two more runs to Leiter’s line. A fourth run scored after Leiter’s exit, bringing his season ERA up to 2.61 from 0.90.

“There wasn’t a lot of hard contact,” Counsell said. “He’s been great and he’s been a big reason for a lot of wins. It just didn’t play tonight.”

3. Taillon one pitch shy of quality start
As Taillon’s pitch count hit the century mark, Counsell identified Masyn Winn as the last batter the Cubs starter would face. That battle ensued with two outs and a runner on second base in the sixth inning.

“It was the guy we kind of pointed to,” Counsell said. “It looked like he got a breaking ball up a little bit and Winn did a nice job.”

Taillon fired a 2-1 sweeper that hit the outer edge of the zone, but was elevated enough for Winn to send the pitch into left for an RBI double. That pulled the game into a 3-3 deadlock and ended Taillon’s night at 5 2/3 innings and a season-high 105 pitches. The Cardinals tagged him for nine hits, but Taillon limited the damage.

“They made me work pretty hard, fouled off a lot of good pitches, had a good approach,” said Taillon, who has a 2.58 ERA through seven starts. “They got some hits on some pretty good pitches. Just made me work for everything. I kept the team in it -- proud of that. But it was definitely a grind.”