The bats were ready again. The pitching just wasn’t. That was the shape of the Cubs’ 6-5 loss to St. Louis on Friday night, a game that looked winnable from the first swing and somehow still slipped away. Chicago finished with 11 hits, put five runs on the board, and got impact nights from Ian Happ, Michael Busch, and Seiya Suzuki — but the pitching side kept handing momentum back.
The opening punch was exactly what you want in a road rivalry game. In the top of the first, Happ launched a three-run homer to right-center to put the Cubs up 3-0. It should have set the tone. Instead, it barely bought breathing room. In the bottom half, Nelson Velázquez hit a three-run homer of his own and Busch Stadium was right back even before the game had a chance to settle.
The Cubs did respond. Busch drove in Dansby Swanson with an RBI single in the second to give Chicago a 4-3 lead, and for a moment it looked like the offense might be able to outpace the mistakes. But that lead never felt stable. Thomas Saggese tied the game with a solo homer in the fourth, Iván Herrera pushed St. Louis ahead with another solo shot in the fifth, and an eighth-inning RBI single gave the Cardinals the insurance run that turned the ninth into a chase instead of a comeback win.
That’s why this one stings. Happ went 2-for-4 with a homer and 3 RBI. Busch went 3-for-5 with 2 RBI. Suzuki went 3-for-4. That is more than enough offensive work to win most nights. Shota Imanaga, though, lasted 5.1 innings and allowed 5 earned runs, including 3 home runs, and that was the real separator.
The bullpen wasn’t a total collapse after that. Ethan Roberts actually gave Chicago useful bridge innings, and Hoby Milner recorded his out cleanly. But Phil Maton’s short outing helped St. Louis find the late insurance run, and when the Cubs only scratched one back in the ninth, the earlier damage became decisive.
The bigger theme is easy to spot now: the lineup has life, but the run prevention has to catch up. This was not a night where the Cubs lost because they could not hit. This was a night where their offensive work was good enough, and the pitching still could not hold the game in place long enough to cash it in.