By Derrick Goold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch –
ST. LOUIS — While detailing several ways he believed the league’s leading offense could reanimate its lineup from a recent lull, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said that to be more consistent and assertive “we need to get something going at the top” of the order.
The top sparked that “something” in the seventh inning Saturday night.
Then the rest of the lineup kept it going.
And going.
And going.
After more than week of fitful offensive frustration, the Cardinals unleashed upon the Cubs’ bullpen for a franchise record-tying 12 runs in the seventh inning. The Cardinals’ dozen turned a taut pitching duel into a 12-0 rout in front of 43,424 at Busch Stadium.
The gush of runs started with leadoff hitter Rafael Furcal’s RBI single for a 1-0 lead and accelerated when Skip Schumaker contributed a triple, a double, and three RBIs as hitting went viral through the lineup. The descriptions of the Cardinals’ dozen-run inning ranged from “crazy” to “unreal” until third baseman David Freese found his preferred word.
“Chaos,” he said. “Some times those innings get crazy. I think we kept our focus and we kept pushing. And the next thing you know we had 12 runs.”
The outpouring of offense came in time to make a winner of Jake Westbrook, whose seven shutout innings were overwhelmed by the final score but essential to the victory.
Neither team managed a run until Furcal’s single with one out in the seventh, so it took Westbrook holding the Cubs to three hits until his teammates’ breakout. The dozen runs and the hits that produced them tied records that had been set before World War II.
The Cardinals matched the franchise record for runs in a single inning by Rogers Hornsby’s crew in September 1926, the month before the Cardinals’ first World Series title. The seven doubles tied a major-league record for a single inning, established by the Boston Bees in August 1936 against the Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park.
From a more modern bent, the Cardinals had eight hits with runners in scoring position during that one inning Saturday, or as many as they had total on the six-game trip to open the season’s second half.
“It did take until the seventh inning,” Matheny said. “Until that point we were really trying to figure out how to get a run in. It comes down to the big hit. We talked about that. Rafi comes up with the big hit, and then Skip comes up with a big triple and then everybody followed suit. That’s standard with this team. It seems like if somebody gets going, then it really gets fun to watch.”
The greatest single Cardinals inning in more than eight decades began like so many innings from the previous seven games. Freese opened with an innocent infield single. Scratching for a single run, Matheny called for Jon Jay to lower a bunt against lefty reliever James Russell. Cubs third baseman Luis Valbuena lunged to make a diving catch that threatened to halt the rally.
“Usually, those things kill you,” Matheny said.
Furcal’s RBI single to left field scored Freese and changed the inning. Instead of playing for one, the Cardinals let loose.
“Look at the offense,” Matheny said of the lineup that leads the National League in runs despite scoring three or fewer in six of the past eight games. “This is the kind of offense we have. When they come they come in bundles.”
On Friday, Furcal for the first time this season did not start as the leadoff hitter. That spot went to Schumaker, who brought a team-high .316 average into Saturday’s game. Furcal has struggled in recent weeks while Schumaker has surged, batting .444 since July 4. Matheny returned Furcal to leadoff Saturday, but kept Schumaker near the top because “it’s time to keep riding Skip a little bit,” the manager said.
Schumaker continued his torrid stretch with a two-run triple for a 3-0 lead early in the seventh inning. After his RBI double later in the inning, Schumaker scored the record-tying run on Matt Holliday’s two-run double.
By the end of the inning, the Cardinals had sent 17 batters to the plate; pinch-hitter Allen Craig, who was held out of the starting lineup because of a sore quadriceps, was the first Cardinal with two doubles in an inning in 35 years. The only spot in the order without a run and a hit was Lance Berkman’s. He doubled to lead off the eighth.
“That’s a really tough lineup there,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. “Five doubles down the right-field line. Two doubles down the left-field line. Quality hitters do that stuff.”
Westbrook (8-8) pitched his eighth consecutive game of at least six innings with no more than four runs allowed only because he survived the first inning. The righty allowed two hits and a walk to load the bases with two outs. He got an inning-ending groundout and control of the game. The Cubs didn’t get another batter to third base as Westbrook matched Matt Garza zero for zero until Garza retreated after three innings with a cramp in his triceps. Thrust into the game, Justin Germano (0-1) continued what Garza started and took the 0-0 game in the seventh.
Ten hits, three walks, and three pitching changes later, the Cardinals had made history.
A great inning, even one of the greatest innings, does not make a winning streak. It’s only an isolated outburst unless, as Matheny said, it “sparks something.”
“We have a good lineup, and we were going to break through at any time,” Schumaker said. “Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come. We’ll see what happens. It was a good inning.”
