We all know this sort of talent is within Ben Brown and Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Saturday night in St. Louis, both of these players showed it off.
Brown threw seven outstanding innings, his longest outing of the year, and PCA went 4-for-5, including a memorable home run, as the Cubs evened up the series with a 6-1 win over the Cardinals.
Brown retired the first nine Cardinals he faced, three by strikeout, on only 27 pitches, really efficient work. But the Cubs couldn’t do anything with Kyle Leahy over
those three innings.
It appeared the Cubs had a run in the second when Alex Bregman left the yard in the second. But the call of “home run” was reviewed and the ball was ruled foul [VIDEO].
In the third, the Cubs had two baserunners, one of them on PCA’s first hit, a single to center. They also had RISP in the fourth, loading the bases with two out, but Dansby Swanson struck out to end the inning.
The Cardinals got on the board against Brown in the fourth. JJ Wetherholt singled, advanced to second on a ground out and scored on a single by Alec Burleson.
The Cubs wasted no time tying the game up in the fifth. PCA’s second hit, a double, led off the inning. He took third on a ground out by Nico Hoerner and scored on this single by Michael Busch [VIDEO].
The Cubs took the lead in the sixth. With one out, Miguel Amaya reached on a throwing error, Swanson walked and PCA was hit by a pitch. That loaded the bases for Nico [VIDEO].
The Cubs led 2-1 and the bases remained loaded with one out. Busch’s sac fly made it 3-1 [VIDEO].
Brown continued his fine outing through seven innings. He allowed just the one run on three hits, all singles, walked one and struck out six. He threw 82 pitches. Here’s more on Brown’s evening [VIDEO].
You can see a much better pitch mix for Brown than in previous years. The addition of a sinker and changeup have made him the starting pitcher many hoped he could be. I suspect that when Edward Cabrera returns, Jordan Wicks goes back to Iowa — but when Matthew Boyd comes back, Brown will stay in the rotation and Colin Rea will return to long relief. Great work, Ben. More on Brown’s evening from BCB’s JohnW53:
Brown is the third different Cubs starter this season to pitch at least 7.0 innings and give up three hits. Shota Imanaga did it on April 21 at home vs. the Phillies and Jameson Taillon did it on April 29 at San Diego.
Imanaga gave up one run, as Brown did. Taillon gave up three. Imanaga gave up a homer; Taillon, two; Brown, none. All three walked at least one. Brown and Taillon walked six; Imanaga, one.
The Cubs made it 4-1 on what I thought was a magical moment. You can’t hear it on the video clip I’m going to link to, but when PCA came to bat in the eighth, there were chants of “Overrated! Overrated!” from Cardinals fans.
PCA responded by absolutely demolishing this baseball [VIDEO].
Check out the exit velocity and distance on that one [VIDEO].
The look on PCA’s face is one of pure joy, something we haven’t seen much of from him recently. Here’s hoping his big day will result in a long hot streak for him.
Jacob Webb relieved Brown and threw a scoreless eighth, and then the Cubs extended their lead in the ninth. Ian Happ led off with a double, his second hit of the game. Seiya Suzuki reached on another Cardinals error, with Happ taking third. A ground out by Moisés Ballesteros moved Suzuki to second. Amaya reached on catcher’s interference — not a good defensive day for the Cardinals! — loading the bases.
A wild pitch scored Happ, making it 5-1 Cubs [VIDEO].
Swanson walked, re-loading the bases, and PCA’s fourth hit of the night, a single, scored Suzuki to make it 6-1 [VIDEO].
Daniel Palencia, who had been warming up for a potential save, threw the bottom of the ninth even though the game was no longer in that situation. That was okay, as Palencia had not thrown since last Tuesday and there’s an off day Monday. He allowed a leadoff single to Ivan Herrera, then got an out on a force play.
Burleson then singled and Herrera tried to take third. Suzuki said “Nope!” to that [VIDEO].
Great throw by Seiya and nice tag by Bregman, too.
The game ended, fittingly, on an outstanding catch by PCA [VIDEO].
Here are some postgame comments from PCA [VIDEO].
And more notes on this game from John:
The Cubs made 11 hits Friday night, then 12 more Saturday.
This is the first time they have produced double-digit hits in back-to-back games since April 23-24, 33 games ago, when they made 18 at home vs. the Phillies, then 11 at Los Angeles vs. the Dodgers in the last of their 10 straight wins. Those were the third and fourth in a row. They had had only four double-digit games since then until Friday.
This was their 19th game with at least 10 hits among all 59 played.
…..
This was Pete Crow-Armstrong’s fourth game with four hits, matching his career high.He had four singles on Aug. 28, 2024, at Pittsburgh; three singles and a homer on May 16, 2025, at home vs. the White Sox; and two singles and two homers on July 4, 2025, at home vs. the Cardinals.
This is the sort of game I think PCA has in him every time he takes the field. This is the way he played during the first half of 2025. I’m hoping this game gets him back to that level.
As for Brown, I think he’s got this in him too, every time. His confidence level appears sky-high, he’s executing all his pitches well and as I mentioned earlier, the additional pitches are what gives him the repertoire to be a good starting pitcher in this league. If he can keep it up at this level, the Cubs have a real asset. In addition to everything else, Brown has allowed only one home run this year in 51.2 innings — and that was to the very first batter he faced this year on Opening Day. His homerless streak is the longest active streak in MLB. He doesn’t have enough innings yet to be a qualified starter, but if he did, his 1.92 ERA would rank third in the NL behind Cristopher Sánchez and Jacob Misiorowski, pretty good company. Great work, Ben.
The Cubs will go for the series win Sunday evening in St. Louis. Hopefully Jordan Wicks will throw better than he did in his first 2026 start last Tuesday in Pittsburgh. Matthew Liberatore will start for the Cardinals, so it’s an all-lefty matchup. Game time is 6:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage is on NBC (full national broadcast, no blackouts). It’s the first appearance for the Cubs on NBC’s new Sunday night coverage, and announcers will be Jason Benetti, Jim Deshaies and Albert Pujols. The game will also be streamed on Peacock.
