Young righthander Jake Woodford had to wait his turn as the Cardinals, because of injury and inefficiency, explored other starting pitching options in a year in which only one starter who opened the season in the rotation, 39-year-old Adam Wainwright, still is in it.
That turn finally came Monday night as Woodford, the 10th pitcher to start for the Cardinals this season, worked out of a first-inning jam and proceeded to set down the Chicago Cubs on six hits and one run for 5 2/3 innings in an 8-3 victory at Busch Stadium before the second largest home crowd of the season at 38,199.
With both teams at 46-47, the winner of the game would climb to .500 and the loser would dip two games under it. Woodford had a lot to do with the Cardinals achieving the former and so did some atrocious Cubs defense, which committed three errors that could be charged and another that couldn’t in a four-run St. Louis fourth inning.
