ST. LOUIS — John Lackey made himself right at home in the ballpark where he pitched so well last year.
In his first start against the St. Louis Cardinals, Lackey fired seven shutout innings and struck out 11 Monday night as the Chicago Cubs busted open a pitcher’s duel in the last four innings for a 5-0 win at sold-out Busch Stadium.
Lackey (3-0) gave up four hits and walked one, becoming the only active pitcher to beat all 30 major league teams. Three relievers finished a five-hit shutout as Chicago improved to 10-3 while winning the teams’ first meeting since it eliminated St. Louis (7-6) from last year’s National League Division Series.
Mike Leake (0-2) pitched well until allowing a leadoff homer to Dexter Fowler in the sixth to snap the scoreless tie. The Cubs added three in the seventh, fueled by a throwing error on shortstop Aledmys Diaz on a potential double-play bouncer off the bat of Jorge Soler that scored a run.
Addison Russell’s sacrifice fly made it 3-0 and Lackey capped the rally with an RBI single to left-center.
Kris Bryant added a run-scoring single to right-center in the eighth to finish the scoring.
Leake worked seven innings, permitting six hits and four runs, three earned, while walking one and fanning six.
The two highest-scoring teams in baseball were totally shut down through the first five innings by their top offseason pitching acquisitions.
St. Louis’ Mike Leake, who offered poor and mediocre performances in starts at Pittsburgh and against Milwaukee, found movement and location on his sinker in this one. Leake needed just 23 pitches total to work through the second through fourth innings, and allowed only two hits in the first five while fanning six.
Chicago’s John Lackey matched Leake pitch-for-pitch, not allowing a hit until Matt Holliday’s one-out single in the fourth. St. Louis pushed men to second and third in the fifth on a single by Kolten Wong and a double by Aledmys Diaz, but Lackey fanned Leake and Matt Carpenter for his seventh and eighth strikeouts.
NOTES: St. Louis activated SS Ruben Tejada (left quad strain) from the 15-day disabled list Monday and optioned INF Greg Garcia to Triple-A Memphis. … Chicago starting pitchers have lasted at least six innings in each of the first 12 games, the longest streak of that kind for the team since 1910. … This series matches the teams with the best run differential in the majors through 12 games. The Cubs entered Monday night at plus-40 and the Cardinals were plus-35.