ST. LOUIS — The Cubs didn’t need any mimes, magicians or mariachi bands in the clubhouse. Joe Maddon didn’t have to reach into his bag of tricks to deflect attention away from his team’s offensive struggles or deflate whatever pressure his young hitters might have been feeling.
The Cubs showed why they have the best record in baseball and status as World Series favorites, jumping Michael Wacha for six runs in the first inning of a 12-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium.
The Cubs (30-14) finished with 15 hits, and if Maddon didn’t call this shot, the manager certainly alluded to it during his pregame media session when asked which hitter he thinks opponents focus on or worry about the most.
“It’s hard to name one guy,” Maddon said. “I’m sure they’re concerned about (Jorge) Soler hitting .190-something, just knowing that at any moment he could just break out. If I were to look at our lineup, I’d be uncomfortable all the way down (with) the way David Ross is hitting right now. There’s no comfortable break in our lineup.
“It’s a definite American League East lineup from back in the day.”
That’s the entire point for this franchise, how Theo Epstein’s front office kept betting on hitters in the draft, trades and free agency, trying to build a bigger, better version of those Boston Red Sox teams that bludgeoned opponents.
Within that first-inning ambush, Soler drew a bases-loaded walk that forced in a run and Ross drove a ball that soared over Randal Grichuk’s head and deflected off the center fielder’s outstretched glove for a two-out, two-run double. Even good-hitting pitcher Jason Hammel chipped in with another two-run double from the No. 9 spot.
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“We don’t hit the panic button when we don’t score runs — or (when) we don’t pitch,” Hammel said. “It’s part of the whole ebb and flow of the season. We’re not robots. We can’t do it all the time.
“You’re going to run into some good teams, too. Overall, we never panic.”
Soler knocked out Wacha — a pitcher the Cubs beat in the playoffs last year — in the fifth inning with a two-run homer that had 100-mph exit velocity and sailed 406 feet over the center-field fence. The Cubs ended a three-game losing streak — the first one this season — and changed the subject with fans on Twitter and for the media wondering what happened to this team.
“It’s hard to keep us down for too long,” said Ross, who notched his 500th career hit in his 15th big-league season. “These guys are very talented, and they’ve continued to grind at-bats. Sometimes it’s just (that) hitting’s hard. Plain and simple, it’s not easy to hit.”
The Cardinals (24-22) will get that reminder on Wednesday afternoon facing Jake Arrieta, a reigning Cy Young Award winner who’s 24-1 with a 0.99 ERA in his last 29 regular-season starts. No one needs to tell the Cubs to R-E-L-A-X.
“We’ve gone through a tough time recently,” Maddon said. “Believe me, man, it happens to everybody. It doesn’t concern me. I’m not distraught over it. It’s just a part of our game. But I like our names. I like our lineup a lot. Our boys will put up some huge numbers by the end of the season.”