AP Photo/Paul Beaty

Cardinals Defeat Cubs to Set Franchise Record with 15th Straight Win

Paul Kasabian

The St. Louis Cardinals set a franchise record by winning their 15th straight game with an 8-5 defeat of the host Chicago Cubs on Saturday at Wrigley Field.

The 1935 Cardinals' 14-game winning streak stood alone as the franchise's gold standard until Friday, when the 2021 Redbirds tied them with a 12-4 win over the Cubs in the second game of a doubleheader.

On Saturday, the Cardinals got solo home runs from Harrison Bader and Tyler O'Neill but trailed 4-2 going into the seventh inning.

St. Louis then posted three runs on RBI singles by Bader and Lars Nootbaar and a Paul DeJong sacrifice fly.

The Cards got in trouble in the bottom of the eighth inning when David Bote smacked a leadoff triple and Trayce Thompson walked.

However, T.J. McFarland struck out Sergio Alcantara and induced an unconventional double play off Rafael Ortega's bat.

The Cardinals put the game away in the top of the ninth. Bader scored on a wild pitch, and DeJong crushed a two-run homer.

The Cubs' Ian Happ countered with a two-out solo shot in the bottom of the ninth, but Luis Garcia struck out Patrick Wisdom looking to end the game.

Bader paced the Cards with four hits, three runs and two RBI.

The Cardinals haven't had too many nail-biters during their streak, though Saturday's victory certainly qualified as one.

Other notable wins include the first one, in which the Cardinals overcome a 4-0 deficit to win 6-4 against the Cincinnati Reds. They overcame a 5-0 deficit to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 8-5 on Thursday.

St. Louis also won a seesaw battle with the New York Mets 7-6 in 11 innings. It scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth last Saturday to edge the San Diego Padres 3-2.

The streak includes two wins against the Reds, three apiece against the Mets and Padres, four at the National League Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers and three more at the Cubs.

The 1916 New York Giants hold the record for the longest winning streak at 26. The best the Cardinals can do is tie the second-best mark of 22 games set by 2017 Cleveland. They have seven regular-season games remaining (four more versus the Cubs and three against the Brewers).

The Cardinals improved to 86-69 and solidified their stronghold on the second National League wild-card spot. The 80-74 Philadelphia Phillies are the next-closest team.

   

Read 0 Comments

Download the app for comments Get the B/R app to join the conversation

Install the App
×
Bleacher Report
(120K+)