Suzuki's 390-Foot Bomb Does All the Damage in Cubs Shutout
Seiya Suzuki hit a three-run homer to left center in the sixth inning, and that was all Chicago needed. The Cubs shut out St. Louis 3-0 on August 14, with one swing accounting for every run scored.
For five innings, this game was a pitching duel with nothing on the board. Clay Holmes was the story on the mound for Chicago — 6.2 innings, 1 hit, 0 earned runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts. That is a performance that wins games by itself. Matthew Liberatore matched zeros early for St. Louis, but the sixth inning unraveled him. With Taylor and Swanson on base, Suzuki drove a 390-foot shot to left center that cleared the bases and put Chicago up 3-0. That was the ballgame.
The win-probability swing on that homer tells the whole story: Chicago's chances jumped from 75% to 93% the moment the ball left the yard — an 18-point swing on a single swing of the bat. Liberatore finished with 5.1 innings pitched, 2 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk, and 6 strikeouts. The strikeout total looks impressive, but the two runs he surrendered were the only two that mattered, and they came in a single at-bat. Peter Strzelecki came on in relief for St. Louis and threw 2.0 clean innings — 2 hits, 0 earned runs — but the deficit was already set. Ryan Zeferjahn closed it out for Chicago with a scoreless inning, 2 strikeouts, keeping St. Louis off the board entirely.
For St. Louis, the offense simply did not show up. Ivan Herrera went 1-for-4, Bryan Torres 1-for-3, Jose Fermin 1-for-2 — the Cardinals collected hits but never strung anything together against Holmes. The Cubs' lineup was hardly explosive either — Suzuki went 2-for-4 with all 3 RBI, Dansby Swanson went 1-for-3 and scored, Michael Busch went 1-for-3 — but when Suzuki connected in the sixth, Chicago had done exactly enough. The story of this game appears to be a pitcher and a slugger doing their jobs in the same night, while St. Louis managed to generate nothing of consequence against one of the cleaner pitching performances of the season.