'Tip your hat': Carpenter's HR only hit off Yu

Cubs starter Yu Darvish’s only mistake Friday night was a slider to Matt Carpenter, slightly over the plate, on the ninth pitch of his at-bat in the sixth inning at Wrigley Field.

The Cardinals veteran, searching for production at a ballpark where he has historically had plenty, battled with Darvish after falling into an 0-2 count. He finally lifted that slider to the basket behind the right-center-field wall to eliminate a perfect game, no-hitter and shutout all in one swing.

It didn’t eliminate Darvish’s dominance. Carpenter’s homer was the Cardinals’ only run -- and hit -- off Darvish in their 4-1 loss in the opener of a five-game series. The Cubs ace flexed his pitch arsenal, fooled the Cards and continued his National League Cy Young Award campaign by striking out 11 batters in seven innings -- without walking anyone.

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“I think you’re seeing a guy that’s been as good as anybody in this league all year, and you’re seeing why,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. “Tough guy to time up. You have to tip your hat when it’s due. We had a good plan, but just couldn’t put anything together.”

Darvish (7-1) fanned every Cardinals starter at least once except rookie center fielder Dylan Carlson , who laced what would have been a hit in the third inning had it not been for shortstop Javier Báez standing right behind second base. Carlson’s lineout had a 100.8 mph exit velocity and a .720 expected batting average, according to Statcast.

Before Carpenter’s homer to lead off the sixth, Darvish retired all 15 batters he faced. He started 13 of the 15 with a first-pitch strike. In Paul Goldschmidt’s first at-bat in the first inning, Darvish threw six pitches. All six featured a different pitch. Darvish has as many as 11 known pitches in his repertoire, and it kept the Cardinals off balance. Darvish had a season-high 25 called strikes, and four of the Cards' strikeouts were looking.

"Last outing, I struggled against the Cardinals,” said Darvish, who allowed eight hits but only one run over six innings in a win vs. St. Louis on Aug. 18. “Their guys fouled off a lot, and then I couldn't get outs easy. Today, I had a plan. Not throwing a chase pitch after two strikes against lefties. I threw a lot of changeups. If I can throw a strike or not -- I don't care. Just throw a changeup. That made it confusing for them. That's why they couldn't sit on one pitch."

The Cardinals’ put only 11 balls in play off Darvish, and only three of those were hit with a 95-plus mph exit velocity: Goldschmidt’s groundout in the first, Carlson’s lineout and Carpenter’s home run.

The homer was Carpenter’s 150th of his career and second this season, both of which came at Wrigley Field. It was his 14th career home run at Wrigley and his 23rd against the Cubs, the most he’s hit against any team.

To finish off the top of the order in the seventh inning, Darvish pulled out two 97 mph fastballs to strike out Goldschmidt and Brad Miller swinging.

“He’s moving, he’s on the corners, he’s ahead of counts, he’s got great speed differential,” Shildt said. “He was just on his game. When a guy’s got that many pitches on his game, it’s just tough to string them together.”

Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty, meanwhile, didn't last past the third inning. The Cubs forced Flaherty to throw 43 pitches in the first inning and chased St. Louis' Opening Day starter from the game after 69 pitches with two outs in the third. It wasn’t that the Cubs were filling up the scoreboard -- they were just making Flaherty work.

Flaherty (2-1) saw 15 batters, and seven of them reached base. In the first inning, Jason Heyward worked an eight-pitch walk. A batter later, Willson Contreras turned a nine-pitch at-bat into a two-run single. Contreras added an RBI single in the third inning, and that was the end of Flaherty’s night. The Cardinals' bullpen strung the rest of the game together, with Jake Woodford allowing a home run to Contreras in the sixth inning.

“I just wasn’t very good,” Flaherty said. “I didn’t execute very well. Didn’t execute my slider, didn’t execute my fastball, didn’t execute my curveball. Didn’t really execute at all. That’s pretty much the way it goes when you don’t execute and they’re able to fight off the pitches you do execute.”