Cardinals blast Cubs to earn doubleheader split

Nolan Arenado had three hits and homered along with Tyler O'Neill during St. Louis' five-run fourth inning as the visiting Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 13-3 to earn a doubleheader split on Tuesday night.

St. Louis' Jake Woodford yielded one run in 5 1/3 innings to get the win in his first start of the season.

After recording just five hits and going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position to see their eight-game winning streak end with a 2-0 loss in Game 1, the National League Central-leading Cardinals broke out for 16 hits and also scored six times in the ninth to win for the 18th time in 22 games.

Corey Dickerson matched a career high with four hits while Tommy Edman also went deep and had three RBIs for St. Louis, which has taken two of the first three in the five-game set.

Woodford (3-0), in his 14th appearance of the season, pitched gave up four hits, including an RBI double to Rafael Ortega in the sixth. He walked one and struck out one. St. Louis pitchers have allowed five runs and 13 hits in the series.

Arenado drove a pitch from Chicago starter Adrian Sampson (1-4) high into the left field bleachers in the fourth inning for his 26th home run. Nolan Gorman followed with a single to center, then O'Neill (two hits) lined a ball over the left field ivy for a 3-0 St. Louis edge.

Back-to-back singles followed, ending the night for Sampson, who was charged with all five runs in the fourth after Nicholas Padilla -- making his major league debut -- yielded a two-run single to Brendan Donovan. Sampson gave up eight hits without a walk or a strikeout in 3 1/3 innings.

Dickerson drove home St. Louis' sixth run on a double in the fifth. Edman added more insurance with his solo homer in the sixth.

Nick Madrigal had two hits on the night and Franmil Reyes delivered an RBI double during a two-run eighth for the Cubs, who played both games Tuesday without injured All-Star catcher Willson Contreras (ankle).

Chicago is 1-3 -- all at home -- since winning five in a row.