Young righthander Jake Woodford had to wait his turn as the Cardinals, because of injury and inefficiency, explored other starting pitching options in a year in which only one starter who opened the season in the rotation, 39-year-old Adam Wainwright, still is in it.
That turn finally came Monday night as Woodford, the 10th pitcher to start for the Cardinals this season, worked out of a first-inning jam and proceeded to set down the Chicago Cubs on six hits and one run for 5 2/3 innings in an 8-3 victory at Busch Stadium before the second largest home crowd of the season at 38,199.
With both teams at 46-47, the winner of the game would climb to .500 and the loser would dip two games under it. Woodford had a lot to do with the Cardinals achieving the former and so did some atrocious Cubs defense, which committed three errors that could be charged and another that couldn’t in a four-run St. Louis fourth inning.
Dylan Carlson drove in four runs for the Cardinals with a two-run homer, run-scoring single and a bases-loaded walk. Paul Goldschmidt hit his 16th homer and fourth in five games.
The 24-year-old Woodford, a 2015 first-round pick making the second start of his career, fanned four men in succession in the first and second innings, the first two on sliders and the second two on 92 mph fastballs.
The first two were the more important because the Cubs had a man at third with one out in the first after Willson Contreras doubled and advanced on Anthony Rizzo’s groundout. Javy Baez and Kris Bryant then both whiffed.
Woodford struck out a fifth hitter in a scoreless third, highlighted by first baseman Goldschmidt’s sprawling stop on Contreras’ smash. Then, Woodford put down a sacrifice bunt in the Cardinals’ third to advance Harrison Bader, who had singled to left.
Carlson singled up the middle to score Bader and record his first run batted in since June 28. He had been one for his past 19.
Then the Cubs’ infield defense self-destructed in the fourth. Yadier Molina’s single to center was the only ball that left the infield during the uprising.
Third baseman Patrick Wisdom threw high to first as he rushed his throw on Tyler O’Neill’s one-out grounder. Molina singled and Tommy Edman walked to fill the bases against Alec Mills.
Consecutive errors by shortstop Baez, one fielding and one throwing, allowed a run to score on each miscue. After Woodford struck out, Carlson’s walk forced in another.
Goldschmidt, taking a mighty swing at a 65 mph curve, sent a roller to Mills’ left. The pitcher couldn’t get it but when first baseman Rizzo fielded the ball, Mills had not continued to cover the bag at first. Goldschmidt’s hitting streak had been extended to 14 and the Cardinals’ lead had grown to 5-0.
The first three Cubs hit safely in the fifth to load the bases but Woodford induced pinch hitter Ian Happ to ground into a double play and the Cubs netted just one run out of the inning.
Woodford had been 1-1 in relief for the Cardinals this season but had been at Memphis preparing to be a starter lately. He lasted 80 pitches Monday night before T.J. McFarland threw one pitch to end the sixth. Woodford didn't walk a hitter while fanning six.
Carlson walloped his eighth homer, a two-run shot, in the sixth off Keegan Thompson after Paul DeJong had been hit by a pitch. Goldschmidt then connected off Thompson to give the Cardinals their fourth set of back-to-back homers this season.
Former Cardinal Wisdom hit his 14th homer off lefthander Andrew Miller in the seventh and Rizzo's double off John Gant led to a run in the eighth.
The Cardinals have won three games in succession and six of their past nine games and Woodford is the first starter to be a victorious for the Cardinals other than Wainwright and Kwang Hyun Kim since June 29.
