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Pedro Pages chose a good time to hit his first homer of the season, opening the top of the eighth with a solo shot to lift the St. Louis Cardinals to a 3-0 victory over the host Chicago Cubs on Friday afternoon.

Pages had one of the nine hits on the day for St. Louis, which opened a three-game series with its third straight win overall.

The Cardinals’ defense prevented Chicago from drawing even in the home half of the eighth, with Pages playing a role in cutting down the tying run at the plate.

Michael Busch opened the frame with a single before being replaced by pinch runner Pete Crow-Armstrong. Crow-Armstrong then stole second and advanced to third when Dansby Swanson grounded out, prompting St. Louis to pull in its infield.

Miguel Amaya sent a grounder to second baseman Nolan Gorman, who fired home to allow catcher Pages to apply the tag on Crow-Armstrong. JoJo Romero came on in relief and got Patrick Wisdom to fly out to the warning track for the final out of the inning.

Ivan Herrera (double) and Dylan Carlson (single) each had a run-scoring hit in the ninth to provide the Cardinals with some insurance.

Ryan Helsley worked around a pair of walks in the ninth for his 23rd save of the year.

St. Louis starter Kyle Gibson (5-2) got the win thanks to Pages’ home run. He scattered just two hits across seven scoreless innings, walking one and striking out six.

Cubs starter Jordan Wicks lasted just 1 2/3 innings before exiting the game with an oblique injury. Kyle Hendricks took over and surrendered just two hits across 4 1/3 innings of shutout ball.

Hayden Wesneski (2-4) served up Pages’ homer to take the loss.

Mike Tauchman and Amaya joined Busch with singles as Chicago finished with just three hits while losing for the third time in four games.

St. Louis had a chance to break through in the sixth, getting one-out singles from Masyn Winn and Alec Burleson. But Paul Goldschmidt flied out and Nolan Arenado grounded into a forceout to keep things scoreless.

–Field Level Media