ST. LOUIS — Whether the venue has been Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field or Busch Stadium, the result has been the same this year when left-hander Jordan Montgomery faces the Chicago Cubs.
He had blanked them for seven innings in a June 11 start in New York when he was still a Yankee. After coming to the Cardinals on Aug. 2, Montgomery blanked the Cubs on one hit for his first shutout in Chicago on Aug. 22. On Friday, the Cubs did only a tad better.
Chicago managed just three hits to the outfield off Montgomery, who shut them out again on seven hits overall, this time for six innings, in an 8-0 Cardinals rout before a sellout paid crowd of 44,491 at Busch. In 22 innings against the Cubs this season, Montgomery has begrudged them 13 hits and two walks.
He is 5-0 in his six starts with the Cardinals and 8-3 for the season.
Tyler O’Neill drove in two runs in the first inning and scored another in the sixth as the Cardinals won for the 24th time in their past 31 games. Lars Nootbaar crushed a two-run homer in the seventh, his first against a left-hander (Sean Newcomb), out of the 11 homers Nootbaar has hit this season. He had one of his five off a southpaw last year.
Tommy Edman ripped his fourth homer in his past 10 games, rifling a three-run drive to left off Newcomb in the eighth,
And Jordan Hicks, the once dominating Cardinals closer before his arm betrayed him, was in command again in the seventh inning. Relieving Montgomery with runners at first and third and no outs, Hicks fanned the side, getting pinch hitter Zack McKinstry, Nick Madrigal and Seiya Suzuki all on nasty sliders while mixing in an assortment of triple-digit fastballs that topped out at 102 miles per hour.
