Cubs Survive Walker's Blast, Errors Seal STL Fate in 6-4 Win

Jordan Walker crushed a 409-foot, three-run homer in the sixth to flip the script on Chicago — then threw away a sacrifice fly in the same inning to hand the Cubs two gift runs. The Cubs beat the Cardinals 6-4 on July 5, a game that turned on a single chaotic inning and a pair of Cardinals errors that proved fatal.

Chicago jumped on Matthew Liberatore early. Alex Bregman doubled to center in the first, scoring Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Nico Hoerner followed with a sacrifice fly to right that scored Bregman and pushed the lead to 2-0. Liberatore would go five innings, allowing 4 hits and 3 earned runs on 2 walks with 3 strikeouts — enough to keep St. Louis in the game, but not enough to win it. Javier Assad, meanwhile, was sharp through 4.2 innings for Chicago, surrendering just 2 hits and no earned runs before handing the ball to the bullpen.

Then came the sixth, and it was a mess for both sides — though a far costlier one for St. Louis. Walker launched a 409-foot shot to left center, scoring JJ Wetherholt and Alec Burleson to put the Cardinals ahead 3-2. The win probability swung from 77% to 44% on that single swing, and it looked like Walker had stolen the game for St. Louis. What followed was a collapse. Hoerner singled to right to tie it at 3. A fielder's choice grounder by Swanson scored another run, with third baseman Fermín's throwing error allowing Hoerner to reach third safely — Cubs up 4-3. Then Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly to right, and Walker's throwing error allowed two runs to score instead of one, ballooning the lead to 6-3 in a matter of minutes. The same player who had just given St. Louis the lead handed Chicago a three-run cushion with his glove.

Walker did add a sacrifice fly of his own in the eighth to score Wetherholt and make it 6-4, finishing with 4 RBI on the night — a genuinely impressive individual line that the Cardinals' defense completely undermined. Jacob Webb was clean in relief for Chicago, throwing 2.0 innings of one-hit, scoreless ball. Wetherholt went 2-for-4 with 2 runs scored for St. Louis, and Burleson also went 2-for-4, but the Cardinals' inability to hold a lead they had just manufactured looks like the defining story of this one. Hoerner's 2 RBI and Crow-Armstrong's 2-for-4 night were the quiet engines of a Cubs win that felt messier than the final score suggests — but Chicago will take it.