Alex Bregman and Nico Hoerner each homered and had four hits apiece as the visiting Chicago Cubs opened a four-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals with a 7-3 win on Monday.
Bregman doubled twice and drove in two runs and Hoerner had four RBIs for Chicago, which tallied 14 hits and won for the third time in its last four games. Carson Kelly and Miguel Amaya added two hits apiece.
David Peterson (6-7) allowed two runs on three hits with two walks and three strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings.
Jose Fermin hit a solo homer and Masyn Winn had two hits for St. Louis, which has lost eight of its 11 games coming out of the All-Star break.
After the start of the game was delayed 1 hour and 46 minutes due to rain, the Cubs took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on back-to-back doubles by Seiya Suzuki and Bregman against Matthew Liberatore (5-8).
With two runners on and one out in the second inning, Amaya added to Chicago’s lead with a run-scoring single to right field.
Fermin put the Cardinals on the board with a two-out solo homer in the bottom of the second. The 407-foot blast was Fermin’s fifth homer of the season.
Bregman began the third inning by depositing Liberatore’s first offering into the right-field seats for his 11th homer of the season.
Liberatore allowed three runs on eight hits over 3 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out five.
The Cubs extended their lead to 5-1 in the fifth inning. Bregman and Kelly hit consecutive singles and both scored on Hoerner’s one-out single.
Gavin Hollowell replaced Peterson with a runner on second and two outs in the sixth. Winn greeted Hollowell with a run-scoring single, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Bryan Torres’ ground-rule double.
The Cubs added to their lead in the ninth when Hoerner hit a two-run blast for his fifth homer of the season and first since April 21.
