The St. Louis Cardinals were dominated by the Chicago Cubs in the first of Major League Baseball's London Series games on Saturday night and narrowly avoided setting an unwanted record by becoming the first team to play in London and fail to score a single run.
In a star-studded event watched by Hollywood legend Bill Murray, actor Nick Offerman and England cricketer Jimmy Anderson, the Cubs put on a batting showcase in front of an impressive crowd at the London Stadium.
The Cubs and Cardinals share one of the oldest rivalries in sports, with a bitter feud going back over 100 years. Although you wouldn't have known it when looking around the London Stadium as baseball fans watched, sang and danced together throughout the baking hot summer's night.
The Cardinals' night started off poorly and only got worse from there on out. After a cagey opening which saw no runs scored in the first inning, the Cubs started to take control in the second thanks to some impressive hitting.
St. Louis' defensive play was also shoddy, to say the least. Adam Wainwright was visited on the mound by pitching coach Dusty Blake twice within the first four innings, as the Cards clearly failed to get any sort of success from the mound.
The Cubs got their scoring underway in the second inning courtesy of a huge home run from Ian Happ, who drove his shot straight back over into the batter's eye section of the seats. Christopher Morel then scored moments later thanks to a Nick Madrigal hit to make it 2-0.
The top of the third continued where the second left off, with the Cardinals being poor from the mound. Happ launched another ball deep into the ecstatic London crowd before Morel and Yan Gomes both added on the scoreline with RBI singles to put the game almost out of sight for the Cards.
Wainwright was removed at the start of the fourth inning, with Steven Matz drawn in to replace him. It didn't matter too much, as Mike Tauchman hit a ground-rule double to give the Cubs a 7-0 lead in London.
The fact it took until the bottom of the fifth for the Cardinals to get their first hit - a line drive from Jordan Walker - says a lot about St. Louis' evening. He was joined on base by Paul DeJong, who hit a double to right field. But, for all that good, Brendan Donovan flew out to left field, ending the inning and any momentum the Cards had.
The Cards finally managed to get on the scoresheet and avoid the unwanted record in the sixth inning, with Tommy Edman doubling before Paul Goldschmidt produced a hit to send him in.
Despite snapping their poor run, the Cardinals were unable to muster up much else in the game and will look to quickly forget their first experience of London. The Cubs made matters worse for them in the ninth as Swanson buried a two-run homer into the Cardinals bullpen to make the score 9-1. Luckily for the Cardinals, they've not got long to wait until they get the chance to right the defeat, as they'll face the Cubs in game two of the series on Sunday.
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