ӣ����Ƶ

When the Cubs put runners at the corners with two outs and brought right-handed hitter Dansby Swanson to the plate, Arenado thought through the most likely scenarios.

Something about being the best defensive third baseman of his generation gave him a feel for where to stand next.

He scooted in.

Swanson chopped a grounder toward shortstop, but Arenado had the angle and the experience — cutting over to barehand the ball and whip a throw to first that Willson Contreras, stretched to fit, caught for the final out of a gripping, come-from-behind 8-7 victory at Busch Stadium.

“Instincts took over,” Arenado said. “I went for it. I was a little nervous going with the barehand. But I’ve made that play so many times, it didn’t feel like anything crazy.”

No, but it did feel like something new.

Or, rather, renewed.

He’s having an absolute blast.

“I like playing baseball like this against the Cubs — games matter,” Arenado said late Tuesday night. “As you get older, that’s what you want to play for. You don’t want to play games just to play games. Individually, I’ve accomplished some things in this game, and I just want to accomplish team-oriented, special (things) and win a World Series. Games like this — it’s easy to wake up. This is the most excited I’ve come to the ballpark — this series — in about two years. It’s just fun.”

The Cardinals won for the seventh time in their past eight games, and with back-to-back assertive wins against the first-place Cubs, they’ve trimmed the division lead down to 2 1/2 games. The win Tuesday assured at least a split of the four-game visit from the Cubs, but the remaining two games offer the potential for much more.

For weeks, the Cardinals have described their approach at the plate as “relentless” and eager to “punch back,” and that style is spilling over into other areas of the game.

Masyn Winn had four RBIs, hit one of the Cardinals’ three homers, and his two-run shot paired with Nolan Gorman’s solo homer to yank them back into a 5-5 tie. And yet the decisive run of the game came when Winn scored from second on a sacrifice fly to center. The bullpen isn’t deployed the same way to hold that lead if not for young pitcher Michael McGreevy steadying himself after the rockiest big league inning of his career. Two of the game’s pivotal moments came in right field, where Alec Burleson had to track down fly balls — one of which could have fueled the Cubs toward a win, with the other was almost in the netting.

All of that, and then the game bounded into the palm of Arenado’s outstretched hand.

The game was, to borrow from Winn, “sick.”

“That game had a lot,” Winn said. “If you don’t like watching that game as a fan, you just don’t like watching baseball. That was a lot of fun. The energy tonight was electric — both sides. That is one of my favorite games of the year, if not my favorite. To get a win on top of it — that was just sick. Sick day.”

The Cardinals (44-36) quilted their 20th comeback win of the season out of contributions from all corners of the roster because it took all corners of the roster to win.

That’s become their identity.

They don’t know what will decide a game, who or when, just how they’ll push in case it’s that moment and them.

“What I loved about it is you never know which play, which run, which at-bat is going to be the most meaningful one of the game, and our guys continue to play every pitch with a ton of heart,” manager Oliver Marmol said.

Here are four of those plays that proved essential in the win:

1. Winn’s clever dash

Burleson, one of the four left-handed batters to hit five homers so far in the series, felt like he had his second of the series in the fourth inning. Winn stood at second when Burleson ripped a pitch that left his bat at 102.9 mph and traveled 402 feet.

And right to Pete Crow-Armstrong’s glove near the center field wall.

One of the swiftest and most gifted fielders in the league, Crow-Armstrong made the catch look routine — and the recovery casual. With the out in his glove, he spun toward the wall, momentarily turning his back on the infield. There was one issue for him: It was the second out of the inning. Crow-Armstrong later admitted to forgetting the number of outs, and that pause allowed Winn to not break stride was he rounded third and headed home.

“I rode the ultimate roller coaster in about five seconds,” Burleson said. “I was kind of pissed off that it didn’t go out, and then me and Stubby (Clapp, first base coach) are just standing at first base watching Masyn round third, and we’re yelling, ‘Send him! Send him! Send him!’ That’s what we look to take a little advantage anywhere we can, and that’s exactly what he did and ultimately that was the game.“

Winn slid home head of the throw that was high anyway.

What was a 5-2 lead for the Cubs after 2 1/2 innings had melted away into a tie, and then Winn’s opportunistic rush home put the Cardinals ahead 8-5. His run would prove to be the deciding run, the only run the bullpen had to hold. And it was only possible because Winn broke from second at full speed, picked up third- ase coach Ron “Pop” Warner and did what Crow-Armstrong did not — never slowed down.

“That got the whole team going,” Winn said. “I did it one time in Low-A, and I’ve been looking to do it ever since. To be able to do it in the big leagues against the Cubs — that’s what dreams are made of right there.”

2. McGreevy’s rebound

Back for a return engagement as the Cardinals’ favorite understudy for the rotation, McGreevy made his third spot start of the season and his second in the past week. Three of his four appearances this season have come against teams that led their divisions, and he’s approached each with the same poise the Cardinals believe someday (soon) will be a fixture in their rotation.

The right-hander slipped free of a first-inning single by starting a double play, and he didn’t allow a ball out of the infield in the second inning.

The third mushroomed on him.

A pair of singles slipped through, and then he complicated the inning by walking Cubs leadoff hitter Ian Happ. Kyle Tucker followed with a game-tying two-run single, and Seiya Suzuki rocketed them ahead with a three-run homer. The five runs were as many in one inning as McGreevy allowed in his previous three appearances, and what happened next would shape the game for the Cardinals.

“Try to get the team as many innings as I can,” McGreevy said.

He pivoted out of the third with two outs to the first baseman, and he pitched a perfect fourth inning. That was crucial for the Cardinals. McGreevy pitched into the fifth and completed 4 2/3 innings. Any less and the Cardinals are likely reaching for long relief or cleanup to just cover outs. By steadying himself and retiring six consecutive after Suzuki’s homer, McGreevy got the Cardinals to the spot Steven Matz could take over and big 4 1/3 scoreless from the bullpen.

“It’s how bad do you want to be a big leaguer,” McGreevy said. “My college coach always tells us back when I was in college that the ball doesn’t care how you feel. You can be racking up frequent flyer miles. You can be driving up from Memphis the night before or flying into Chicago the day of. It just doesn’t care. You have a job to do when you step on that field.”

3. Burleson’s catch of the day

With two on base and Phil Maton looking to escape the seventh inning by retiring Swanson, Burleson had no fear driving into foul territory and the netting that protects fans along that right field wall.

Getting out of the netting, however, was tricky.

“Buttons were hung in the net,” Burleson said, pantomiming loosening the buttons of his jersey. “Got a little bit of a road rash on my chin. Thank God I have a beard so you can’t see it. I thought I had more room than I did until I got over there and actually caught the ball and fell into the net.”

Burleson’s catch ended the seventh, stranding two Cubs.

It was the most difficult and entertaining catch of his day, but it was not the most important. That came two innings earlier as McGreevy exited and Matz (4-2) entered to face the left-handed hitter Crow-Armstrong. The Cubs’ young sensation has 21 homers and 61 RBIs to go with huge support as the starting center fielder for the National League in the All-Star Game. In the fifth, he had two teammates, Happ and Suzuki, on base and a chance to tie the game with a hit — or take the lead with extra bases. Crow-Armstong pulled a liner to right field and right toward Burleson.

Burleson stayed low to keep a view of the liner and not lose it in the lights. He slid to make the catch for the final out — and a miss would have misplaced the lead.

“I had a bead on it the whole way,” Burleson said. “It was probably more of a bad jump more than anything that made me slide for it. Just because it was hit right at you, you have to take a split second to see where it’s at. So that’s probably where the slide came from.

“I like the foul-ball catch better.”

4. Nolan’s being Nolan

A step slower by the runner and it might have been the most remarkable play of Arenado’s remarkable career of making remarkable plays.

In that fifth inning, Suzuki drilled a pitch to third that Arenado jumped to get his glove on. The ball dropped and bounced right up toward him as he landed. As he leaned into foul territory, Arenado whipped a throw toward first — that Suzuki beat. Arenado said later if he pulled it off it might have been his favorite play.

“Ever,” he said.

Instead, he had to make his signature play.

Swanson’s game-ending grounder was there to grab.

“I wasn’t making the play, and I was pretty nervous,” Winn said. “I don’t think a lot of guys could do that. Man, me personally? I don’t know if I have the confidence to be able to just barehand it like that.”

Whether it’s crossing behind the mound in Arizona to shock Paul Goldschmidt with a barehanded throw on a high bounder for the out or, as he did Tuesday, cut off a grounder to shortstop with his sure hand and drill a throw to first, barehanded pickups on the go fill Arenado’s highlight reel through a dozen years and 10 Gold Glove Awards in the majors. The Cardinals had 10 hits in the game, but Arenado chipped in none of them, and he talked later about how he was still able to contribute to the game in a decisive way.

“As I’ve gotten older, I want to contribute anyway I can,” he said. “Sometimes it might be offensively. Sometimes it won’t be. ... I didn’t get a hit today, but I know I can impact the team defensively. I know these guys are starting to carry that over.”

That push, that pursuit of the play somewhere on the field — on the bases like Winn, in the field like Burleson, or at the plate like Lars Nootbaar’s two-run homer — is what Arenado sees developing with this team.

Just a few months after he wasn’t sure what ballpark he would call home this season, he mentioned Thursday night how that style of play as why he’s excited to drive to Busch, especially this week.

“When you win ballgames, I think you realize how important it is to play both sides of the ball, and I think these young guys are starting to learn that because we’re winning games,” Arenado said. “We haven’t won games like this in two years, really, at this point. That’s the type of baseball you want to play — meaningful, a chance to take a division lead. It feels like it’s been awhile.”