ST. LOUIS — There was a time not long ago that the Cardinals weren’t necessarily committed to bringing up Dakota Hudson as he worked through a minor league rehabilitation option following Tommy John elbow surgery 11 months prior. Then, when they did bring him up, Hudson didn’t seem to figure as a starter.
On Friday night, five days from their first game in the 2021 postseason, the Cardinals had two big takeaways. One wasn’t that unexpected.
Tyler O’Neill, who walloped 11 homers in September, ripped two more in his first two October at-bats. One went to right. One went to left. And then he had 34 for the season.
O'Neill doubled in his third at-bat and scored a third run on Lars Nootbaar’s single. He reached on an error in his fourth at-bat and stole his 15th base. And he threw out the potential winning run from left field in the top of the ninth. He easily was the star of this one.
But Hudson, making his first start since last September, acted as if he hadn’t been hurt at all. The sinkerballer netted 10 of his 15 outs via the ground ball and struck out four more as he spun five scoreless innings, yielding just three singles to a rookie-laden Chicago Cubs lineup, as the Cardinals scored in the ninth to beat the Cubs 4-3 before a paid crowd of 41,618 at Busch Stadium.
A pinch single in the ninth by Edmundo Sosa, who later in the inning ripped his pants, set up Paul Goldschmidt to drive in the winning run with a two-out single for his 99th RBI of the season.
Hudson threw what appeared to be a comfortable 70 pitches, 42 of them for strikes. And he most certainly is in the picture as a member of the postseason club, maybe as their second or third starter.
As the Cardinals won for the 19th time in 20 games and 21st in 23, which is a totally preposterous stretch, they attained something which has come to be expected — at least 90 wins.
Since the year 2000, a stretch of 21 full seasons, the Cardinals have won at least 90 games 12 times. All have resulted in postseason appearances.
O’Neill’s 33rd homer, an opposite-poke to right in the first, gave Hudson an early lead.
A winner in relief a week ago in Chicago in his season debut with the Cardinals, Hudson allowed two singles, one on the infield, over the first three innings. Matt Duffy singled to center to open the second and got to second on a wild pitch but was stranded. Opposing pitcher Cory Abbott legged out an infield dribbler in the third.
But, after Hudson failed to sacrifice in the third, he struck out swinging and Andrew Knizner was picked off first base by catcher Erick Castillo.
O’Neill took care of that in the next inning, rifling his 34rd homer to left, tying Nolan Arenado for the team lead.
There was one key downer, though.
Left-hander Genesis Cabrera, though he tossed one of the double-play balls, also walked three of the four men he faced in the sixth and came out of the game in obvious frustration with an apparent recurrence of a nail problem on the middle finger of his left hand. That ailment usually keeps Cabrera out three or four days after an acrylic nail is applied, so he won’t be seen again before Wednesday.
Double-play specialist T. J. McFarland entered the game but there were already outs. So it was that Trayce Thompson launched a three-run homer deep to left center and Hudson’s lead was gone.
The Cardinals soon tied the score at 3 in their sixth on O’Neill’s 26th double, Arenado’s right-side groundout and Nootbaar’s one-out single up the middle. Nootbaar appeared to have stolen second as Harrison Bader struck out but was out on appeal by the Cubs as Nootbaar briefly left the bag as he popped up from his slide.
Among other highlights:
— The Cardinals beat the Cubs for the seventh consecutive time this season and clinched the season series with their 10th victory in 17 games with just two remaining.
— Tommy Edman stole his team-high 29th base.
— The Cardinals turned two infield double plays and narrowly missed on a couple of others.
— Alex Reyes pitched around two singles by striking out two in the seventh. Andrew Miller pitched around a hit batsman and a walk by striking out two in the eighth.
— Dylan Carlson poked a bunt single against an overshifted defense by the Cubs in the seventh. It was his second bunt hit of the season.
