LONDON – Ian Happ was well aware of the new dimensions of the field at London Stadium. After a 2019 slugfest between the Yankees and Red Sox in the inaugural London Series, the field assembled for the Cubs and Cardinals’ bout pushed back the wall seven feet at center field, five feet at the alleys.
Happ pointed to the difference in the baseballs four years ago as another reason he didn’t expect the fireworks show from the last installment of the event, which featured 50 runs over two days.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a home run derby out there,” he said before the Cubs’ 9-1 win against the Cardinals on Saturday, the first of a pair of games in London.
Then, he did his best to prove himself wrong.
Happ’s first home run served as a turning point in the game. Both Cubs starter Justin Steele and Cardinals hurler Adam Wainwright retired the side in the first inning. Happ, batting cleanup, led off the second.
He worked a 2-2 count, aided by a pitch timer violation, and then jumped all over a sinker that drifted over the middle of the plate. His towering blast cleared the tall center field fence to give the Cubs an early lead.
“Happer getting it started with the homer kind of lets everybody relax a little bit,” manager David Ross said.
The Cubs tacked on another run that inning with three straight singles from the bottom-of-the-order trio of Christopher Morel, Yan Gomes and Nick Madrigal.
Steele kept mowing down the Cardinals, holding them hitless through the fourth inning and scoreless through the fifth.
“Truly special,” Steele said of pitching in that big-event atmosphere, in front of a crowd of 54,662. “Felt like everybody was on the mound there with me.”
Meanwhile, Wainwright, as Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol succinctly put it, “had a bad day.”
Happ, who donated the Chicago flag-colored batting gloves he wore Saturday to the Hall of Fame to commemorate the event, made sure of it.
The next time Happ stepped in the box, Wainwright again put up two strikes. Then, Happ dropped the barrel of his bat to a 1-2 curveball, sending it over the right field wall.
It was Happ’s 11th career multi-homer game and his third against Wainwright.
“He’s been so good for so long,” Happ said of Wainwright. “A real legend in our game. And the experience, the at-bats that I’ve had against him, it’s been fun competition.”
Dansby Swanson, Cody Bellinger, Morel and Gomes followed Happ’s two-out bomb with four straight singles. And Wainwright only got out of the third inning thanks to a well-executed cut off.
Cardinals outfielder Tommy Edman fielded Gomes’ line drive into short center on one high bounce and fired home. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt cut off the throw and tossed the ball to third to catch Morel in between the bases – but not before Bellinger scored to make it a three-run inning.
The Cubs knocked Wainwright out of the game with back-to-back doubles from Madrigal and Mike Tauchman to lead off the fourth.
Steele dealt through the sixth, surrendering just one run.
Aside from their stars on the field, the Cubs brought out their share of celebrities to London Stadium. Bill Murray, who sat next to former Cubs great Rick Sutcliffe and ousted mayor Lori Lightfoot, elicited a rousing round of applause. Nick Offerman led “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh inning stretch.
Overall, Happ proved to be right about the nature of the game. The only home run not off Happ’s bat was Dansby Swanson’s two-run blast with two outs in the ninth inning. The Cubs recorded a season-high nine two-out hits Saturday.
There were, however, more literal fireworks.
As the stadium speakers launched into “Go Cubs Go,” streaks of white and red pyrotechnics erupted over the open-air stadium.
“That sounded good,” Ross said of the victory song.