Cubs win eighth straight, longest winning streak since 2016
Palencia finished off the Cards (Jeff Curry - USA Today Sports)

Cubs win eighth straight, longest winning streak since 2016
by - Senior Writer - Sat Jul 29 23:57:19 GMT-04:00 2023

ST. LOUIS - Who would have thought just three weeks ago that this Chicago Cubs (53-51) would be in a position to buy come August 1? Well, here we are, just three days away from the trade deadline, and this team is not only in a position to buy, but they are in a position to challenge for the division crown.

With the Milwaukee Brewers losing again to the Atlanta Braves, the Cubs had a chance to pull within 3.5 games of first if they could knock off the St. Louis Cardinals 46-60 once again. With Jameson Taillon getting the ball against Adam Wainwright, several historical moments happened on the diamond at Busch Stadium Saturday night. For Wainwright, he became just the fourth pitcher in MLB history to make 50 career starts against one team as he was hoping to end his final matchup against the Cubs in style.

You also had the Cubs getting back over the .500 mark after being 10 games under for just the third time in franchise history and the first time since 1996. Ian Happ also continued to have his way with Wainwright as he connected for his seventh career homer off of the big fella, which proved to be the winning in the Cubs 5-1 victory. Chicago has not only taken the season series with the Cardinals, but this was their eighth straight win as they continue to play amazing baseball.

When we look back at Taillon's first season with the Cubs, the results are not going to be great. However, since the end of June, Taillon has been one of the Cub's better pitchers, and that continued on Saturday as he battled through some early command issues to give the Cubs six innings of work, allowing just one run on two hits. Both hits came in the first inning, with no more hits following for the remainder of his outing.

“It’s been fun,” said Taillon about his last four impressive starts. “That's kind of the way we're built. It's like we're going to need everyone at some point. This isn't built around one or two superstars. This is a deep roster. And I think that's one of our strengths. Right now, it does feel like everyone's contributing.”

The same can't be said about Wainwright, as the Cubs had him on the ropes early and often. After Mike Tauchman led the game off with a single only to be erased on a double play, Ian Happ and Cody Bellinger extended the inning with a pair of walks, but the Cubs came up empty. The Cardinals, too, came out on fire as Brendon Donovan and Paul Goldschmidt opened the game with consecutive singles as they had a pair of runners on with no outs.

Lars Nootbaar followed those singles up with a sacrifice fly to put the Cardinals in front 1-0, but once again, their offense was lifeless as that was the only run of the game for them. To make things worse, those were the only hits they would have off of Taillon as he continued to turn his season around. Still trailing 1-0 in the third, the top of the Cubs order started things for the offense as Tauchman legged out a one-out infield single to put a runner on base.

Two batters later, it was time for Happ to pick up his annual homer against Wainwright as his two-run blast gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead and put them in front for good.

Immediately after serving up the lead, the Cardinals had a chance to retake the lead in the bottom of the third as Taillon suddenly lost his command and walked the bases loaded with two outs. However, just as quickly as he lost it, Taillon recovered as he not only escaped that jam but retired the final 10 hitters he faced to put himself in a position to win another start.

With the offense finally breaking through in the third, the Cubs kept the pressure on Wainwright in the fourth as a two-out walk from Christopher Morel kept the inning alive. That proved costly as Yan Gomes got into a Wainwright heater and drove it over the head of Dylan Carleson in center for his ninth and extended the Cubs lead to 4-1.

Nick Madrigal followed that up with a double in his return from the IL, but no further damage came from that inning.

Neither team could do much of anything across the next few innings, as this would become a game of the bullpens in the seventh. For the Cardinals, Drew VerHagen was on to pitch the seventh and, after allowing a one-out single to Madrigal, had to pitch around a baserunner. That didn't work in his favor as Tauchman pulled one of his three hits down the first base line for an RBI double and extended the Cubs lead to 5-1.

That would be the last of the Cub's run, as it would be up to Michael Fulmer and the Cub's pen to keep things that way.

Making his first appearance in a few days, Fulmer served a pair of singles to lead off the bottom of the seventh before escaping the jam unharmed. He turned things over to Mark Leiter Jr in the eighth, who had similar results after not pitching in a few days. Leiter would allow a one-out single to Nootbaar before a walk to Nolan Gorman and hit by pitch loaded the bases with two down. After that hit by a pitch, Leiter left the game and was replaced by Javier Assad, who needed just two pitches to get out of another big jam.

Down to their final three outs, Daniel Palencia was on to pitch the ninth inning for the Cubs and took care of the Cardinals in order as the Cubs secured their longest winning streak since 2016 and have now won six straight games against the Cardinals.

“If we continue to go out and play and do what we're doing -- play good baseball and rack up wins -- then good things are going to happen,” Cubs manager David Ross said after the game. “I think that's all we need to know. We need to focus on the game. We need to focus on the Cardinals.”

The Cubs will go for nine wins in a row on Sunday as they turn to Professor Kyle Hendricks as he will oppose Steven Matz.

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