Cardinals 11, Cubs 4: Walker and Burleson Drive in Four Each

August 16, 2026 - Chicago - Jordan Walker had gone 29 games with one home run. On Sunday he hit his 24th of the year to center, added two doubles, and drove in four. Alec Burleson matched him: three hits, a homer, four RBIs. The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 11-4 at Wrigley Field and took the series.

Joshua Báez had hit three homers in his first three major league at-bats on Saturday. On Sunday he went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. The Cardinals did not need the encore. Walker and Burleson were enough.

Burleson first. Then the fourth swallowed Cabrera.

Burleson launched a sinker into the right-field bleachers in the first. JJ Wetherholt scored ahead of him. 2-0. Blaze Jordan singled home Jimmy Crooks in the second. 3-0. Wrigley had not even gotten its first loud inning yet.

Pete Crow-Armstrong supplied it in the third. Two-run homer, his 28th, James Triantos aboard. 3-2. For one half-inning it looked like a game. Then Edward Cabrera (5-5) walked the yard in the fourth, and the game ended as a contest.

Cabrera was making his first start since June 23, when a left hamstring strain shut him down. Chicago optioned Javier Assad to Iowa to clear the roster spot. Cabrera lasted 3 2/3: six hits, seven earned runs, three walks, two strikeouts. All three walks came in the fourth. All three scored.

Masyn Winn scored on Wetherholt's walk. Crooks scored on Iván Herrera's sacrifice fly. Wetherholt and Jordan scored on Burleson's two-run single. Walker then hit the two-run shot to center that made it 9-2. Six runs. Cabrera was gone. The Cubs were done.

Dobbins keeps it from turning back

Hunter Dobbins (3-3) worked five innings, two hits, two earned, four walks, seven strikeouts. The walks were sloppy. The strikeouts were the point. Crow-Armstrong's homer was the only real damage. Three relievers finished it.

Walker doubled home Herrera and Wetherholt in the eighth. 11-2. Tyrone Taylor hit a sacrifice fly after Seiya Suzuki took third on a wild pitch. 11-3. Miguel Amaya homered in the ninth. 11-4. Chicago scored in the last two innings and never got closer than seven.

Line: Cardinals 11 runs on 13 hits; Cubs 4 runs on 6 hits; St. Louis scored six in the fourth and two more in the eighth.

Dansby Swanson left after hurting himself on a swing-and-miss against Dobbins in the third. Manager Craig Counsell said Swanson would have an MRI on Monday and believed it was a left oblique that would land him on the injured list. That is a different kind of loss than 11-4. The Cubs dropped their first series since the end of July. They also might be without their shortstop.

A series St. Louis actually took

The Cardinals have won four of five and four straight series. They scored 19 runs across the last two games at Wrigley. Burleson's homer tied his career high at 21. He has now gone deep in consecutive games. Walker's was the second in a month from an All-Star right fielder who had gone quiet. He finished 3-for-4 with two doubles and the homer. Wetherholt scored three times. The lineup behind Báez's 0-for-5 did not stall.

Chicago still sits 72-53. St. Louis is 63-61. One weekend against the Cardinals does not knock the Cubs out of October. It does send them into a White Sox series without Swanson, and with Cabrera's return already in the loss column. Shota Imanaga starts Monday. The Cardinals head to Cincinnati for a doubleheader, Quinn Matthews and Andre Pallante on the mound.

I would not call Walker's night a full breakout. I would call it the version of him St. Louis paid for when the extra-base hits stop hiding. Two doubles and a homer at Wrigley, four RBI, and a series in his pocket. Burleson matching him is how you leave the North Side with 11.

Baez will get another turn. Three homers on Saturday still happened. Sunday was the night the rest of the order reminded Chicago that one debut does not cover a series.

AthX Engine angle

Walker led Sunday's hitter board with 14 AthX Engine hitting fantasy points. Burleson scored 12. Wetherholt added 8. Dobbins had 12 pitching fantasy points. The Cardinals finished with 21 team fantasy points, tied with Baltimore for second on the slate. AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) graded the full St. Louis night, not only Walker's fourth-inning homer.

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*Sources: ESPN box score, MLB.com gameday, AP News, AthX Engine daily scoring for August 16, 2026. AthX Engine fantasy scoring is for information only and is not financial advice.*