Burleson, Walker Each Go 3-for-4 With 4 RBI in STL Rout
St. Louis dismantled Chicago 11-4 on Sunday, with Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker combining for 6 hits, 2 home runs, and 8 RBI between them. The Cardinals turned a tense three-run game into a laugher before the fourth inning was over.
St. Louis came out swinging from the jump. Burleson put the Cardinals on the board immediately, launching a 421-foot two-run shot to right center in the first that scored Wetherholt and made it 2-0. Walker added another run in the second with a single to center that plated Crooks, and suddenly Chicago was staring at a 3-0 hole before they'd barely settled in. The closest thing to a lifeline the Cubs got came in the third, when Pete Crow-Armstrong crushed a 408-foot two-run homer to right center that scored Triantos — a swing that pulled Chicago's win probability from 27% all the way to 49%. For a moment, it looked like a game.
It wasn't. The fourth inning is where this one was buried. St. Louis sent nine men to the plate and scored six runs in a sequence that left no doubt. Wetherholt drew a walk that scored Winn, the Cubs challenged the call and lost, and then the Cardinals just kept coming — a sacrifice fly from Herrera, a two-RBI single from Burleson, and finally a 413-foot Walker bomb to center that made it 9-2. The story of that inning was the Cardinals' ability to keep stringing plays together; every time Chicago had a chance to limit the damage, St. Louis found another way to extend it. Walker finished 3-for-4 with 4 RBI and a run scored. Burleson matched him: 3-for-5, 4 RBI, 2 runs. JJ Wetherholt crossed the plate three times without needing a hit to do it.
On the mound, Hunter Dobbins gave St. Louis five innings, allowing 2 hits and 2 earned runs while striking out 7 — the walk total (4) looks like the only blemish on an otherwise solid outing. Luis Gastelum followed with two clean innings, 1 hit and 3 strikeouts. For Chicago, Aaron Civale was sharp in his two innings — 4 strikeouts, no walks, no runs — but the Cardinals had already done their damage before he could matter. The Cubs added a pair of cosmetic runs late: a sacrifice fly in the eighth and Miguel Amaya's solo shot to right center in the ninth, but the final was 11-4 and it wasn't that close. This appears to be a Cardinals offense that, when it gets rolling, is genuinely difficult to slow down.