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Albert Pujols continued his offensive tear at the plate,
providing the Cardinals' lone run with the 693rd homer of his
career. Montgomery faced just 28 batters while leading St. Louis
to its eighth straight victory, its longest winning streak of
the season.
Montgomery (7-3), who had never completed more than seven
innings since breaking into the majors in 2017 with the New York
Yankees, yielded only Christopher Morel's two-out, third-inning
double.
That also proved to be the only baserunner allowed by
Montgomery, who struck out seven over an efficient 99 pitches
while helping the National League Central-leading Cardinals to
their 17th win in 20 games.
Since being acquired from the Yankees earlier this month, the
left-hander has surrendered just one run, 13 hits and fanned 24
over 25 2/3 innings (0.35) to win all four of his starts with
St. Louis.
Meanwhile, Chicago starter Drew Smyly (5-7) was nearly as good
as Montgomery.
He was tossing a shutout until the seventh, when the 42-year-old
Pujols drove a high pitch from the veteran left-hander into the
left field bleachers for his 14th home run of the season. Pujols
continues to defy age and time, recording two of St. Louis' four
hits on the night.
He is now 17-for-31 (.548) with seven home runs and 14 RBIs in
his past 10 games.
Smyly gave up only three other hits and two walks while striking
out six over seven innings for the Cubs, who have dropped two in
a row after winning five straight and eight of the previous 10.
Monday's game marked the eighth time this season that Chicago
was shut out by its opponent.
St. Louis has won four in a row versus the Cubs and leads the
season series 8-4. The Cardinals have also won three straight at
Wrigley Field.
--Field Level Media
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