Paul Goldschmidt hit a go-ahead RBI single that knocked Marcus Stroman out of the game, and Willson Contreras went 4 for 4 with two runs scored and the Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 7-5 on Sunday to split a brief two-game series in London.
The Cubs (37-39) won 9-1 on Saturday but had their winning streak halted at four games. They haven't been at .500 since May 12, though they've still won 11 of their past 14 games.
Jordan Hicks, who sat out Saturday because of illness, got the final three outs to record his fourth save - all in the past eight days. He struck out two and allowed one run on Nico Hoerner’s sacrifice fly.
Jake Woodford (2-2) came in for spot starter Matthew Liberatore in the third and pitched 2 1/3 innings.
The Cardinals (32-45) erased a 4-0 deficit with timely hitting and a big assist from Cubs first baseman Trey Mancini.
With the bases loaded in the second, Stroman struck out Paul DeJong for the second out. Tommy Edman then grounded to second but Hoerner's underhanded toss to Mancini was dropped by the first baseman when he tried to grab it with his bare hand - allowing Contreras to score to make it 4-1. Stroman smacked his mitt in frustration.
Brendan Donovan hit a two-run single to right field on a sinker - batters swung at 17 Stroman sinkers and missed just three - scoring Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker, who beat the throw with a head-first slide to make it 4-3.
An inning later, the Cards pulled even at 4-4 on Walker's single that scored Lars Nootbaar.
Goldschmidt put the “home” team ahead in the fourth on a sharp single off Stroman that scored Edman.
Stroman was then pulled and the first batter reliever Michael Fulmer faced was Nootbaar, whose sacrifice fly scored Donovan for a 6-4 lead.
An inning later, the Cards made it 7-4 when Gorman's single to left off Fulmer drove in Contreras.
The Cardinals handed Stroman a 4-0 lead before he even took the mound by committing two infield errors in the top of the first inning - not helping Liberatore, who took Jack Flaherty's place.
Hoerner led off and reached on an error by DeJong at short and moved to third by stealing second and advancing on an error by Gorman at second.
Liberatore struck out Christopher Morel looking for the second out.
Dansby Swanson singled to score Hoerner. Ian Happ walked and Mancini then hit a two-run double, crunching a 95 mph pitch off the wall in the left-center gap - it might have sailed out in 2019 when the walls were closer - and came around to make it 4-0 when Miguel Amaya doubled on a hard shot past third baseman Nolan Arenado that originally was ruled an error.
Stroman allowed six runs, three earned, and eight hits and had two strikeouts and a walk. Liberatore lasted 2 1/3 innings.
The teams have Monday off to recover from the trip and both begin six-game homestands Tuesday. The Cubs host the Philadelphia Phillies. The Cardinals host the Houston Astros.
