A Cubs fielding mistake allowed Nolan Arenado’s short fly ball to fall in for a tying, two-run single during a three-run eighth inning. Tommy Pham tripled and scored in the ninth, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to come back and beat Chicago 5-4 on Saturday.
St. Louis was behind 4-1 in the eighth when new third baseman Isaac Paredes made a wild throw past first base on Brendan Donovan’s grounder off Porter Hodge, letting Alec Burleson score from second due to the error.
Arenado hit a fly ball to short center field that second baseman Nico Hoerner was set to catch when rookie center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong called him off. Crow-Armstrong couldn’t reach the ball, which dropped 213 feet from the plate, allowing two runs to score.
“I called it when I shouldn’t have. Simple as that,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I know better. I just did a poor job checking.”
Pham led off the ninth with a hit against Héctor Neris (8-4) that bounced off the glove of leaping Ian Happ and the ivy on the left-field wall, letting Pham slide into third base.
“It looked like he caught it,” Pham said about Happ’s attempt. “But that’s a brick wall behind — I’ve been on the other end of those kinds of plays here.”
Pham scored on Lars Nootbaar’s flyout. Pham also doubled and is hitting .471 (8 for 17) since rejoining the Cardinals, who got him from the Chicago White Sox.
“He’s been phenomenal,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “He likes playing meaningful games.”
JoJo Romero (5-1) pitched a perfect eighth inning, and Ryan Helsley closed with a 1-2-3 ninth for his major league-leading 34th save in 37 chances, ending Chicago’s three-game winning streak.
Burleson hit his 18th home run for St. Louis, a drive to right in the first inning that was initially ruled in play. A video review showed the ball hit the bricks above the right-field wall.
