Beginning, ending of doubleheader loss frustrating for Cubs

ST. LOUIS -- Unfortunately for the Cubs, the beginning and the end of Saturday’s doubleheader made for a forgettable day as the Cardinals won both games.

Hayden Wesneski allowed a career-high nine runs in the first inning alone as the North Siders lost 11-3 to St. Louis in Game 1 of a doubleheader.

“Weird inning,” Wesneski said. “I'm the one who really messed it up starting there with the sail throw to second. Still competed, right, and still got weak contact. It's just one of those things where if one thing goes right, we’re in a different game.”

His trouble started right away as the first three Cardinals reached on singles capped by an RBI hit by former Cub Willson Contreras to tie the game 1-1.

That’s when things got ugly.

Lars Nootbaar followed with a chopper back to Wesneski, who threw the ball into center field trying to get the forceout, allowing another run to score. Nolan Arenado then hit a grounder, but Cubs third baseman Miles Mastrobuoni had trouble getting the ball out of his glove, and Nootbaar just beat his throw to second to reload the bases. Brendan Donovan then bounced another ball toward the mound, but Wesneski couldn’t field it cleanly. He was charged with his second error in three batters, and the Cardinals led 3-1 without any outs.

Still, Wesneski had a chance to limit the damage with strikeouts of Nolan Gorman and Pedro Pagés, and he was a strike away from getting out of the inning when he hit Michael Siani with a misplaced sweeper to make it 4-1 and turn the Cardinals’ lineup back to the top of the order.

“That ended up hurting us,” manager Craig Counsell said. “We could have gotten out of the inning with just a 3-1 deficit. You know the hit batter to Siani was obviously costly, and then we just couldn't finish the inning. So, the game was out of hand early, unfortunately.”

Masyn Winn responded with a two-run single, his second hit of the inning, and Alec Burleson capped off the outburst with a three-run homer to give the Cardinals a 9-1 lead.

“The homer at the end kind of was just the nail in the coffin kind of thing,” Wesneski said. “I was grinding my butt off and left a pitch [on the edge of the zone], and he hit it. It could have been a different game if the first inning goes away.”

Wesneski (3-6) allowed 11 runs, with just four earned, in four innings. He gave up 10 hits, struck out four and walked one.

The Cubs’ starting pitching struggled again in Game 2 as Javier Assad went just 2 1/3 innings while giving up three runs on seven hits and two walks as the Cubs lost 5-4.

“Javy relies on really good command with that fastball and kind of getting the ball the glove side, and he just wasn't getting to the spot that he needed to get it to,” Counsell said.

Assad was activated from the injured list as the team’s 27th man for the doubleheader.

“Thank God I felt good out there,” Assad said through Fredy Quevedo Jr. “I felt healthy, you know, just a couple of pitches that I didn’t necessarily execute well, and that's where they were able to get those hits.”

But the Cubs erased an early 2-0 deficit by scoring four runs in the second, courtesy of five straight two-out hits. Miguel Amaya jump-started the rally with a two-run homer, and Nico Hoerner and Seiya Suzuki added RBI singles to give the Cubs a 4-2 lead.

The Cubs kept a lead until the eighth inning, when the Cardinals finally broke through on Porter Hodge (0-1). Contreras led off with a walk, and Paul Goldschmidt followed with a ground-rule double before Arenado scored them both with a two-run single to erase a 4-3 Cubs lead.

“We asked Porter to do a tough job, you know, to get five outs in a one-run game, go through the middle of their lineup,” Counsell said. “The walk probably hurt as much as anything and us not being able to cash in the runs, and so a one-run loss.”

The Cubs left 10 runners on base in the nightcap, including a bases-loaded, one-out chance to break the game open against a struggling Kyle Gibson in the fourth, but the Cardinals starter wiggled out of the jam by getting Christopher Morel to ground into a double play.

“We did a nice job against Gibson, you know, putting lots of traffic on,” Counsell said. “I think the fourth inning would be the inning, you know, you look back and say we left at least a run out there.”