ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Cardinals rode the middle of the order to a 7-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night at Busch Stadium to open their homestand, overcoming two early solo home runs by Chicago leadoff man Chase Meidroth. The trio of Alec Burleson, Joshua Báez and Leo Bernal — the self-styled “Killer B’s” — broke the game open in the fifth inning after a back-and-forth start following a brief rain delay.
Matthew Liberatore surrendered a 398-foot solo homer to Meidroth on his first pitch, a 93 mph four-seam fastball into the left-field plants, and later a second solo shot on an 88 mph changeup in the third that tied the game 2-2. The left-hander steadied after the early damage, working 4 1/3 innings and allowing six hits and two earned runs with two strikeouts and three walks before manager Oli Marmol lifted him with a runner on first and one out in the fifth. Gordon Graceffo escaped the jam after loading the bases on a walk and hit-by-pitch, striking out Peters to keep the lead intact.
St. Louis answered each Chicago score. Iván Herrera was hit by White Sox starter Anthony Kay in the first and scored on Burleson’s RBI double to right to tie it 1-1, then Leo Bernal doubled to left-center in the second and scored on Masyn Winn’s groundout after a Thomas Saggese single for a 2-1 lead. Jordan Walker singled and scored on Báez’s single to center in the third for a 3-2 edge, and the decisive rally came in the fifth when Walker doubled to left and Burleson, Báez and Bernal followed with a single, double and single in succession to push the advantage to 6-2.
The bullpen navigated repeated traffic to hold the lead. Luis Gastelum entered in the sixth and loaded the bases on singles by Antonacci and Teel and a walk to Meidroth, but struck out former Cardinal Randall Grichuk and got Miguel Vargas to fly out to center where Nathan Church made a running catch at the wall. Church added another highlight in the seventh, slamming into the center-field wall for a difficult catch to aid Justin Bruihl.
Bruihl hit Antonacci and allowed a single to Teel to start the eighth, prompting Marmol to turn to Ryne Stanek, who struck out Meidroth and got Munetaka Murakami — who entered with 31 home runs on the season — to ground into a forceout that plated a run to make it 7-3 before Vargas grounded out to Urias at third. Riley O’Brien closed the ninth without drama, striking out Colson Montgomery, getting Benintendi to fly out to defensive replacement Victor Scott II in right, and inducing a weak grounder from Tristan Peters to Burleson at first. Báez nearly homered in the seventh, driving an 89 mph slider off the padding atop the left-field wall.