CHICAGO _ One of the most successful hitters with the bases loaded in Major League Baseball history, Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter, stepped to the plate in the first inning Wednesday afternoon one hit shy of batting .500 in his career in those spots.
He got there with gusto.
Carpenter drilled a grand slam in the first inning to put the Cardinals quickly ahead and on their way to a 9-3 victory in the first game of a doubleheader against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
The Cardinals will be the home team for the second game and rookie Johan Oviedo will make his major league debut by starting it.
Once again, the Cardinals had to cobble together a game out of available and still conditioning pitchers. Jack Flaherty, in his first appearance since opening night on July 24, had a hard stop at 40 pitches. He got into the second inning before hitting a batter to load the bases with that 40th and final pitch. Lefty Austin Gomber, newly off the injured list Wednesday morning, slipped free of that bases-loaded mess to keep Flaherty's line cleaner than it could have been.
Flaherty allowed a run on a homer and walked two batters on his way to 1 2/3 innings in his return to action.
With only 5 1/3 innings to cover from there, the Cardinals were able to close the game without utilizing Giovanny Gallegos or Andrew Miller because the offense kept piling on against the Cubs.
Ian Happ hit a solo homer off Flaherty to lead off the first, and the Cubs did not have another hit until the seventh and final inning.
Kolten Wong reached based four times in the first six innings, and he scored four runs. He blazed through a stop sign from third-base coach Jose Oquendo in the second inning to score on Tommy Edman's single. He scored on Paul Goldschmidt's RBI single in the fourth inning, and he scored on Brad Miller's double in the sixth. Wong also stole a base, was hit by a pitch, and took a walk in addition to a double.
Cubs starter Alex Mills did not get an out until the 25th pitch he threw.
By then the Cardinals already had a 4-0 lead and a runner on base.
Carpenter became the fifth Cardinal to hit a grand slam in the first inning of a game at Wrigley and the first since Adam Kennedy in Sept. 2008. He joined Jim Bottomley and Ken Boyer as the only cleanup hitters to have the first three batters of the game reach base and then hit a grand slam.
The grand slam was the second of his career despite the 1.100 OPS he has in those spots.
Carpenter improved to 28 for 56 with the bases loaded in his career. That average slipped to .491 when he came up later in the game with the bases loaded and struck out.
