CHICAGO _ With a little help from Ian Happ, the top of the Chicago Cubs lineup provided some long-awaited support for Yu Darvish.
Happ, who led off in place of the injured Kris Bryant, hit his fifth home run, sparking a 6-3 victory Tuesday night against the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field.
Happ's homer off Daniel Ponce de Leon in the third inning moved him into a tie for the team lead with Anthony Rizzo. Happ appears likely to stay in the leadoff spot for Wednesday's doubleheader.
Javier Baez, who was 1-for-23 on this homestand, ripped a double off the wall in left-center to open the fifth and scored on a convincing Kyle Schwarber home run to right field off Seth Elledge.
The game took four hours, nine minutes to complete. The deliberate pace stemmed not from the usually meticulous Darvish but from the first four Cardinals pitchers, who issued eight walks in the first 6 2/3 innings. The Cardinals pitching staff, which was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, combined to throw 207 pitches.
Willson Contreras drew a leadoff walk in the fourth, and Jason Heyward followed with an RBI triple.
Darvish (4-1) won his fourth consecutive game despite allowing eight hits through five innings. Darvish performed at his best in the fourth after loading the bases with no outs. He induced Dylan Carlson to hit a soft grounder back to the mound for a force-out at the plate. After Dexter Fowler struck out on an 89 mph cutter, Darvish induced Matt Wieters to hit a line drive at Heyward in right for the final out.
Darvish, who allowed eight hits and struck out seven with one walk in six innings, has a 1.04 ERA with 29 strikeouts and five walks in 26 innings during his winning streak.
Despite Darvish's exceptional pitching, the bullpen experienced some wobbly moments with four walks in the final two innings.
Casey Sadler walked the first two batters in the eighth with a five-run lead. Dan Winkler took over and allowed a single and a walk and hit Fowler with two outs.
Rowan Wick then struck out pinch hitter Andrew Knizner to kill the threat and pitched a scoreless ninth to earn the save.
