On the hottest weather day in nearly 4 years, Randy Wells did quite an impression to cool off the St. Louis Cardinals’ offense.

Wells pitched 7 strong shutout innings, as home runs by Alfonso Soriano, Geovany Soto & Tyler Colvin sparked the Chicago Cubs to a 5-0 win on Friday afternoon from Wrigley Field.

The Cubs took a quick lead in the 1st, as Tyler Colvin hit a lead-off homer (14th of season) off Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan to give themselves a 1-0 lead.

Aramis Ramirez & Marlon Byrd later drew back-to-back 2-out walks, which kept the inning alive for Alfonso Soriano.

Soriano popped up to Felipe Lopez at 3rd to end the inning.

Chicago then had a chance to add onto their lead in the 2nd after Ryan Theriot hit a 1-out single against Suppan.

Randy Wells laid down a sac bunt, which advanced Theriot to 2nd for Tyler Colvin.

Colvin drew a 2-out walk, which kept the inning alive for Starlin Castro.

Castro grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the scoring chance.

The Cardinals then tried to tie it up in the 3rd, as Jeff Suppan hit a lead-off single against Cubs starter Randy Wells.

3 batters later, Jon Jay drew a 2-out walk to put runners on 1st & 2nd for Albert Pujols.

Pujols hit a weak opposite-field flyout to Tyler Colvin in shallow right to end the inning.

The Cubs added another run in the 4th, as Geovany Soto’s lead-off solo homer (14th of season) made it a 2-0 game.

St. Louis again tried to rally in the top of the 5th after Jason LaRue hit a lead-off single against Wells.

Tyler Greene then reached on a fielder’s choice 2 batters later & stole 2nd base during Felipe Lopez’s at-bat, who struck out swinging to end the inning.

Chicago then doubled their lead in the bottom of the 5th, as Aramis Ramirez hit a 1-out single against Suppan.

2 batters later, Alfonso Soriano bombed a 2-run homer (18th of season) to make it a 4-0 game.

The Cardinals again tried to rally in the 6th after Jon Jay hit a lead-off single against Wells.

Albert Pujols hit a sharp groundout to Starlin Castro at shortstop, but advanced Jay to 2nd on the play.

Jay then advanced to 3rd base on Randy Wells’ errant pickoff throw, as that set up an RBI chance for Matt Holliday.

Holliday struck out swinging, which left it up to Colby Rasmus.

Rasmus flied out to Marlon Byrd in shallow centerfield to end the inning.

The Cubs added another run in their half of the 6th after Ryan Theriot hit a lead-off single against Suppan.

Randy Wells then laid down his 2nd successful sac bunt of the game, as it advanced Theriot to 2nd base for Tyler Colvin.

Colvin flied out to Matt Holliday in left center, which brought up Starlin Castro.

Castro got an unusual RBI single, as it dropped inbetween Felipe Lopez at 3rd base & Suppan, which scored Theriot from third and gave Chicago a 5-0 lead.

St. Louis threatened again in the 7th after Randy Winn drew a pinch-hit 2-out walk from Wells.

Winn then stole 2nd base during Tyler Greene’s at-bat, who also drew a walk to put runners on 1st & 2nd for Felipe Lopez.

Lopez grounded out to Starlin Castro at shortstop to end the scoring chance.

Randy Wells (5-7) gets the win for Chicago after pitching 7 shutout innings in which he allowed just 5 hits while walking three & striking out seven.

It’s the second shutout win for Wells this season, as he pitched 6 shutout innings against Atlanta on April 8th during the Cubs’ 2-0 win.

Jeff Suppan (0-6) takes the loss for St. Louis after allowing 5 runs on 10 hits in 6 innings, as he failed to strike out a single batter in a start for the first time since September 9th, 2009.

Ironically, that game was against his current team, as he took the loss after allowing 4 runs on 8 hits in 5 innings of work during Milwaukee’s 5-1 defeat.

This 3-game weekend series will resume on Saturday afternoon at 12:05 PM cst, as Tom Gorzelanny (5-5, 3.12) will matchup against Blake Hawksworth (4-5, 4.85).

Gorzelanny will look for his 4th straight win on Saturday, as he’s 3-0 this month with a 3.06 ERA.

Hawksworth will make just his 7th career big-league start on Saturday, as he’s 2-2 in 4 road starts with a 4.86 ERA.

Signing off for now,

Matt T for Cubshub.com