CHICAGO — There would be no fortuitous gust this time, no swirling of fielders unable to make a play to lift the Cardinals out of their deficit Sunday night.

They faced only the familiar headwind of offensive struggles vs. a lefty.

Aided by a timely but disputed balk call and punctuated with a pair of home runs, the Cubs slowed any forward progress the Cardinals had coming out of the trade deadline with a four-game series victory, capped with a 6-2 victory Sunday night at Wrigley Field.

Through the four-day stay in Chicago, the Cardinals offense stalled, needing an error and misplay to spur a comeback victory Saturday. Both of the Cardinals’ runs Sunday came on a single swing by rookie Masyn Winn, and then the lineup went flat from there. They had only four hits, three of them off Cubs lefty starter Justin Steele. He held them scoreless for another 3 2/3 innings after Winn’s homer.

Miles Mikolas rolled through the first few innings before ushering the tying run home with what the umpire decided was a balk. What had been a two-run lead vanished, and the game wasn’t far behind as the Cubs added two more runs off Mikolas and another couple of homers off the Cardinals’ bullpen.

The Cardinals arrived at Wrigley fresh from the trade deadline and buoyant after adding a need (starter Erick Fedde) and a want (sparkplug Tommy Pham). The return of Pham specifically had jolted the team through a series win against Texas that included outscoring the Rangers 18 to 2 in the final 18 innings. It was a wave of offense the Cardinals had been craving all season, and it gave them a chance to surf into Chicago and wash away the Cubs’ chances.

They had a different kind of deadline – one geared around setting up the roster for future seasons, not this one. Buying a bit. Selling a bit. Shuffling aplenty.

In some ways they were moving on from 2024.

The Cardinals gave them reason not to.

After blowing a lead in the ninth inning Thursday, the Cardinals avoided a series sweep with a comeback victory Saturday that needed some assists from the Cubs to pull off. That meant the Cardinals would not leave Wrigley with a .500 record, but not without a wobble in the standings. They’re 7-9 since the All-Star break, and only accompanying losses from the Brewers have kept the lead in the NL Central relatively stagnant. Meanwhile, the bottom is closing. The Cubs yanked the Cardinals four games closer in the loss column.

‘Swing for the fences’ indeed

After his first homer of the series lifted the Cardinals to a lead that would slip away from them, rookie shortstop Winn said he was “swinging for the fences” and trying to set free some emotions with his ferocious swings. He explained that he would dial back his swing, shorten it up if he got into two-strike counts.

But otherwise he wanted to slug his way out of a funk – and at the same time start to learn what damage his swing could do and then, he explained, “control it.”

Initials results have been powerful.

Winn launched the Cardinals ahead briefly Sunday with his second two-run homer of the series – and his fifth hit of the weekend at Wrigley. The more aggressive approach has not resulted in more strikeouts or more walks, but it has given the young shortstop an updraft of power. With the shot off lefty Justin Steele into the right-center net basket, Winn had his fourth homer in 43 at-bats. He hit four home runs in his previous 221 at-bats.

Winn’s ninth homer of the season gave Mikolas a 2-0 lead that would carry into the fourth inning and drift away with a disputed balk call.

Balk call on Mikolas ties game

Mikolas was one out away from getting free of the fourth inning with a lead still intact.

At the plate, he had rookie Pete Crow-Armstrong.

On the mound, he had an issue.

A balk was about to tie the game.

With a runner at third and in the midst Crow-Armstrong’s at-bat, Mikolas put his right foot on the rubber, moved his left foot, and then disengaged the back as if to dig into the dirt behind the rubber. Home plate umpire Clint Vondrak called Mikolas for a movement toward the plate and a balk, an illegal movement where a pitcher, in the judgment of the umpire, attempts to deceive a baserunner. Mikolas argued that he did not make a move toward the plate.

“I stepped off,” Mikolas said, per replay on ESPN’s broadcast.

Vondrak’s call forced home Tauchman to knot the game, 2-2.

Tauchman doubled earlier in the inning to push teammate Isaac Paredes to third. Paredes scored on Dansby Swanson’s groundout that cut the Cardinals’ lead in half but also put Mikolas an out away from ending the inning. He eventually got that out from Crow-Armstrong, but not before the balk call escorted Tauchman home for the tie game.

5th goes haywire, 6th gets homer happy

As soon as Mikolas returned to the mound, his start slipped away swiftly.

The Cubs greeted him with three consecutive singles to begin the fifth inning. Rookie Michael Busch snapped the tie with an RBI single, and immediately after that hit Mikolas walked Seiya Suzuki to load the bases. The walk came on Mikolas’ final pitch of the start, and he turned the bases-loaded mess over to lefty John King. The reliever was able to minimize the Cubs’ rally to a sacrifice fly and a second run. King coaxed a double play ball to end the inning and freeze the Cubs’ lead at two.

It did not stay there long.

Against two different relievers in the sixth inning, the Cubs hit two home runs to widen their gap and attempt to foolproof it against any further wind-aided shenanigans. Tauchman hit the second pitch of the sixth inning for a solo homer off King that traveled as estimated 367 feet. Three batters later – after two more groundouts against King – the Cardinals turned to right-hander Ryan Fernandez to face the Cubs’ right handed-hitting No. 9 hitter, Miguel Amaya. He lifted a homer to center some 390 feet away to give the Cubs a four-run lead.

9th proves pesky

Amaya’s solo homer in the sixth – his fourth home run of the season – added to the production the Cubs got all weekend from the bottom of the order. Through six innings Sunday, the No. 9 spot in the Cubs’ lineup had produced five RBIs and two homers. Christian Bethancourt’s three-run homer Friday flipped that game, and Amaya’s squeeze bunt Saturday plumped the Cubs lead to 4-1 before the Cardinals’ late comeback.

©2024 STLtoday.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.