The Cardinals just took down the Cubs 5-1 on Sunday night, claimed the series, and pushed their record to 31-26. After getting roughed up in Milwaukee, this was the bounce-back St. Louis needed. Yet the biggest story wasn’t the final score—it dropped during the Peacock broadcast when Anthony Rizzo casually reminded everyone why this rivalry never gets old.
Matthew Liberatore set the tone. He carved through Chicago’s lineup for 5.1 shutout innings, punching out four and neutralizing the usual Cardinal killers. Slowing down Ian Happ alone felt like a moral victory. Then the freshly promoted Hunter Dobbins stepped in and delivered an 11-out save—his first in pro ball. That kind of relief work doesn’t happen every day.
On the offensive side, Alec Burleson and Masyn Winn each delivered multi-RBI knocks while JJ Wetherholt and Ivan Herrera played perfect table-setters, combining to go 4-for-6 and score all four of the Cardinals’ early runs. Busch Stadium was alive, momentum was back, and the Redbirds looked sharp against their archrivals for the first time in 2026.
But none of that topped the story Rizzo shared on air alongside Albert Pujols. The former Cubs star, once a constant thorn in St. Louis’ side, spilled the details of a long-ago bet at first base when Oli Marmol was still the Cardinals’ first-base coach.
“It was always hard to talk to the Cardinal guys, with the ‘Cardinal Way’ and all,” Rizzo recalled. Then came the wager. With the Cubs up early, Marmol looked him dead in the eye and said, “He said if they came back and walked it off, I had to buy him a house.”
The Cardinals, being the Cardinals, delivered chaos and walked it off. To this day Marmol hasn’t let him forget it. “He used to send me Zillow listings when we’d play each other,” Rizzo laughed. “He’d leave them in my locker.”
That’s the beauty of this rivalry—fierce on the field, but capable of producing moments this ridiculous off it. Rizzo may never actually hand over the keys, yet every time these two teams meet, that story floats back into the conversation like a perfectly placed changeup.