Alex Bregman walked into Busch Stadium riding an 0-for-12 skid, the kind of cold spell that gets a $175 million man asking questions about his swing. He walked out of it looking like the guy the Cubs paid to be their middle-of-the-order anchor, going 4-for-4 with a homer, two doubles and three runs scored as Chicago beat St. Louis 7-3 to open the series, according to MLB.com.
It didn't start smooth. The game was delayed nearly two hours by rain before first pitch, and Cubs Twitter was already sizing up the Cardinals' pitching before Bregman even got his first swing off.
Fans clowned the Cardinals' defense/pitching early, sensing a Bregman eruption coming.
The prediction aged well. Bregman opened the scoring by taking Matthew Liberatore deep to right for his 11th homer of the season, and the Cubs dugout let him hear about it.
Bregman's homer off Liberatore got the Cubs bench going.
Bregman's night was the headline, but Ian Happ quietly stole scenes on defense all evening. With Trent Thornton trying to nurse a lead through traffic in the middle innings, Happ tracked down a ball in the outfield that Steven Cheah described as a near disaster before Happ bailed his pitcher out.
Happ ran down a fly ball to end the inning, sweat and all, with Thornton on the mound.
Nico Hoerner chipped in too, with Cubs accounts flagging a Hoerner homer in the mix even if the reaction posted online was pure meme -- a shirtless Shawshank Redemption pose standing in for actual celebration footage rather than a literal replay of the swing.
The Nico Hoerner home run got the full reaction-gif treatment online.
The bigger picture: Bregman signed a 5-year, $175 million deal with Chicago in January, and a big chunk of his season has been about proving that money out. Per the Chicago Sun-Times, he'd flashed signs of a second-half surge before this game, and a 4-hit night against a division rival is exactly the kind of statement Cubs fans have been waiting on. Combine that with Happ playing lockdown defense behind a shaky Thornton outing, and Chicago left St. Louis with a series-opening win and a lineup that looks like it's finally clicking in the second half.