Thursday night at Busch Stadium, the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs opened a four-game series that could have major trade deadline implications. The Cubs enter the series only 4.5 games out of a wild-card spot. A good weekend and they'll be right back in the race, and could keep rentals Cody Bellinger and Marcus Stroman. Crazier things have happened.
There was some bad blood to begin Thursday's game (GameTracker), both literally and figuratively. Cubs outfielder Ian Happ accidentally nailed Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras with his backswing in the first inning, hard enough that it drew blood and forced Contreras to exit the game. Chicago announced the injury as a scalp laceration and said Contreras is day-to-day.
Happ and Contreras are of course longtime teammates from the Cubs. They even shared a hug before Contreras left the game. St. Louis starter Miles Mikolas was having none of it though. Once the game resumed, Mikolas threw at Happ, first up and in and then hitting him in the behind. The umpires ejected Mikolas without a warning. Here's the sequence:
Mikolas obviously threw at Happ. He threw at him twice, and when it's that obvious, it only makes sense to skip the warnings and go straight to the ejection. That nips it in the bud right away and hopefully -- hopefully -- heads off any further beanings. It is a four-game series though. Plenty of time for the Cubs to retaliate, should they decide to go in that direction.
Chicago did get the last laugh: Happ's hit-by-pitch with two outs ignited a three-run rally. Dakota Hudson came out of the bullpen to replace Mikolas and allowed three runs on a bases-loaded walk (Dansby Swanson) and a two-run double (Christopher Morel).
The Cubs entered play Thursday with a 50-51 record, having won five straight games. The Cardinals are in fourth place at 46-57.
