Hoerner and Bregman Dismantle St. Louis, Cubs Win 7-3
Nico Hoerner went 4-for-5 with a home run, 4 RBI, and 2 runs scored, and Alex Bregman matched him hit-for-hit with a homer of his own as Chicago rolled past St. Louis 7-3 on July 27. The story of the night was a two-man wrecking crew that St. Louis simply had no answer for.
Chicago came out swinging from the jump. Bregman doubled to left in the first to score Suzuki, and the Cubs added another in the second when Amaya singled to right to score Hoerner. St. Louis answered immediately — Fermín launched a 407-foot shot to left to cut it to 2-1 — but Bregman shut that door fast. In the third, he went the other way and homered to right 369 feet, and that's when the game turned: the win probability swung from 39% to 28% for St. Louis on that one swing. The Cardinals were already in a hole; that blast made it feel like a canyon.
Chicago kept piling on. A fifth-inning single by Hoerner to center scored both Bregman and Kelly to push the lead to 5-1, and at that point Hunter Dobbins had seen enough — he was done after 5.1 innings having allowed 6 hits and 4 earned runs. Matthew Liberatore came on and kept things somewhat respectable, but St. Louis did claw back in the sixth. Winn singled to center to score Walker, and Torres followed with a ground rule double to score Winn, trimming it to 5-3. That looked like it might set up a tense final few innings. It didn't. Hoerner ended any suspense in the ninth by going deep to left 382 feet, scoring Bregman ahead of him, and that was the ballgame at 7-3.
On the mound, David Peterson gave Chicago 5.2 innings of three-hit, two-earned-run ball — a workmanlike outing that appears to have been exactly what the Cubs needed to let their offense do the heavy lifting. Jacob Webb closed it out with a clean inning of relief. For St. Louis, Liberatore's 3.2-inning stretch was rough — 8 hits and 3 earned runs — and it's hard to look at this game and not frame it as a Cardinals pitching staff that got overwhelmed by a Cubs lineup firing on all cylinders. Hoerner and Bregman combined for 8 hits, 3 home runs, and 6 RBI between them. That's not a lineup you can pitch around; that's a lineup that beats you two different ways at the top and middle of the order.