CHICAGO — Even in the densest fog it’s becoming clear how much rookie JJ Wetherholt relishes becoming part of baseball’s oldest rivalry between two clubs that have never moved.

Welcomed by boos as the first batter of Saturday’s game at a vibrant, loud and jam-packed Wrigley Field, Wetherholt stung the first pitch he saw, the first pitch of the game, for a home run, and the Cardinals never trailed from there on Fourth of July. One day after hanging 17 runs on the Cubs and holding them to a single run, the Cardinals showed they can win the close games too with a 3-0 victory on the country’s 250th anniversary.

Neither rain nor fog nor Shota Imanaga could slow Wetherholt.

The Cardinals’ second baseman set a few club rookie records with his swing, and by the end of the seventh he had reached base four times and authored his seventh three-hit game. In five games against the Cubs, Wetherholt has reached base more times (13) than the Cubs have gotten him out (nine), and overall he’s 10-for-19 (.526).

Wetherholt’s leadoff homer and third-inning walk held generate a 2-0 lead that Kyle Leahy (7-4) held up with his five scoreless innings. The Cubs’ biggest threat to the lead came in the eighth when the first two batters reached against lefty JoJo Romero and gave two right-handed batters a crack with two teammates in scoring position and the tying run at the plate.

Romero struck out both right-handed batters to hold shutout.

Riley O'Brien pitched around a walk in the ninth inning to complete the shutout and secure his 22nd save of the season.

The start of the game was delayed 59 minutes by a band of thunderstorms that rolled through Chicago. During the game, a ghostly fog settled over the ballpark and eventually caused a delay shortly after it appeared to make outfielders vanish as if in an Iowa cornfield.

The electric crowd of 38,872 remained through the game with the promise of fireworks to close out Independence Day.

Afterall, they did not get any from the Cubs' offense.

The Foggy Confines

A soupy mix of rain, fog, and smoke from semiquincentennial celebratory fireworks sat over Wrigley for much of the game, and it began to thicken around the sixth inning.

At one point, it was impossible to see the Cardinals’ center fielder and right fielder through the fog from the press box. And only the Cardinals’ white Fourth of July caps made it clear there was a left fielder out there somewhere.

The final out of the fifth inning was a high popup in foul territory by Alex Bregman. From the viewpoint of the press box, the ball vanished in the fog. Cardinals first baseman Alec Burleson settled under it to make the catch and end the inning, suggesting that the fielders had a clearer view in the fog, possibly due to the lights.

By the sixth, their view had been smudged, too.

The final out of the bottom of the sixth was a groundball to shortstop, and that was probably for the best as the fog had obscured the view of all three outfielders.

The game was paused at that moment for, officially, a “fog delay.”

The delay lasted a total of 15 minutes with players chilling in the dugout and laughing, the scoreboard entertaining the crowd with some “Tarps Off” images. When play resumed, some fly balls were still adventures – more so than usual at Wrigley.

With one on in the seventh, Dansby Swanson crushed a ball to left field that could have tied the game had it cleared the ivy. Lars Nootbaar gave chase and tried shifted as if to get an angle to see if for sure. He hit the ivy after catching it for the final out.

Wetherholt opens with club record

It wasn’t quite, “Hello Fourth of July! Take a ride on that knockdown pitch, Big Boy.”

But it was close.

With echoes from Mike Shannon’s call of a July Fourth homer by Albert Pujols off Kerry Wood at Wrigley, JJ Wetherholt set a new club record on the first pitch of the game Saturday. Wetherholt came to the plate with a packed house booing him. The greeting had not subsided when Wetherholt sent Imanaga’s first pitch out to left field and into the basket net atop the wall. The boos stopped almost as soon as the ball did not find a Cubs’ glove.

The homer was Wetherholt’s fourth leadoff homer of the season.

That breaks a tie for the most leadoff homers by a Cardinals rookie. Lou Klein set the record with three in 1943, and Wally Moon (1954) and Bo Hart (2003) both matched the record in their rookie seasons. Wetherholt surpasses them at the same time he takes ownership of another Cardinals record. His 12 home runs as a second baseman are the most for a Cardinals rookie at that position. Nolan Gorman and Kolten Wong each hit 11.

One of Wetherholt’s 13 homers came while he played shortstop.

The call on Pujols’ home run on July 4, 2003, became one of Shannon’s signature moments due to his and Pujols’ timing. Wood had just knocked Pujols down with a pitch. He got up and got more than even with a bolt to center at Wrigley.

Shannon suggested Wood “take a little whiff of that, Big Boy.”

Cardinals add on to lead

Before the fog rolled in, the Cardinals doubled their lead by capitalizing on a pair of walks.

Wetherholt got the second of them after Nathan Church led off the inning with a walk from Imanaga. Wetherholt’s second time on base in the game and fourth time of the series nudged Church into scoring position. Ivan Herrera drove him home with a single.

Herrera’s 39th RBI of the season gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.

That was as big as the lead got for Leahy.

The Cardinals would widen it to three runs for the bullpen when the National League's RBI leaders did RBI leader things. Jordan Walker, on the day he found out he would be a first-time All-Star doubled to lead off the eighth, and Burleson drove him home to tie Walker for the NL lead at 63 RBIs on the Fourth of July.

Leahy continues strong starts

As he reaches the midpoint of his first season in the rotation, Leahy has shown why the Cardinals were so patient with his inconsistencies and short starts early in the season.

His past three games have each been strides forward as a starter.

Leahy struck out two in the first inning and with help from Pedro Pages catching Pete Crow-Armstrong trying to steal a swift run through the Cubs’ lineup began. Leahy retired eight of the first nine Cubs he faced, and he finished his first tour through the lineup with another pair of strikeouts. Leahy got six strikeouts total, and he finished three of them with a changeup. Three different pitches concluded the other three strikeouts, and Leahy finished with a total of seven swings and misses total.

He allowed only three hits.

Not one of them came against his changeup.

Over two games of the series at Wrigley, the Cardinals starters have yet to allow a run. Leahy’s five scoreless followed Andre Pallante’s 5 2/3 scoreless innings Friday. The Cubs have managed a total of eight hits in those 10 2/3 innings. Leahy and Pallante have combined to strike out just as many Cubs – eight.

Starting with his game against Arizona, Leahy has steadily piled up scoreless innings while also showing that he can pitch deeper into the game, face a lineup for a third time, and vary his mix of pitches. It’s that mix of six or seven pitches that inspired the Cardinals to shift Leahy from the bullpen to the rotation and commit to all the learning curves and adjustment changeups that go with it. In his previous three starts, Leahy has allowed one run on eight hits through 16 1/3 innings.

That cut nearly a run off his ERA.

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