Three takeaways from MLB London Series as St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs share spoils

The St. Louis Cardinals claimed a 7-5 win over the Chicago Cubs to split the 2023 MLB London Series.

After the Cubs cruised to victory at London Stadium to open the series, they let an early four-run lead slip on Sunday as ace pitcher Marcus Stroman was knocked around and taken out of the game with a blister on his finger.

It was a successful return to the capital for Major League baseball, with two entertaining games after four years away.

This is just the start of London’s MLB adventure

Ceremonial first pitches are a good gauge of the importance of a baseball game and a significant nod to the Brits in attendance came on Saturday with Jimmy Anderson and Nathan Lyon doing the honours (the England bowler threw a considerably better pitch, featuring a nip of swing across leg stump). But the appearance of Cubs and Cardinals legends Dexter Fowler and Albert Pujols for day two was a nod to the hardcore fans in the stadium, most of whom were American devotees travelling across the Atlantic in their droves.

It was one of several moments across the weekend which showed MLB were taking this seriously, including wheeling out actors and Cubs/Cardinals fans Nick Offerman and John Goodman to sing the seventh-inning stretch. This was no jolly to throw the foreign market some scraps knowing they’ll eat it up regardless a la Premier League pre-season tours. The UK, and Europe as a whole, is officially a “priority” market for MLB and one which is only at the start of its journey. Amid this are hopes of an actually competitive Great Britain team continuing to emerge over the next decade or so, with a big focus on youth.

Next year we’ll have the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies in town. Comparatively, the NFL may be much further down this road (don’t expect talk of a MLB team in London for many years) but baseball is a-coming.

Cardinals have the last laugh

After a pretty miserable display on Saturday and an error-strewn four-run first inning on Sunday, it looked like the Cardinals were going home without much to savour.

A sweep against their midwest rivals would have made the Cubs victorious in 12 of their last 14 games, dumping St. Louis further off the pace at the bottom of the NL Central table.

And yet, two-out knocks from Tommy Edman, Brendan Donavon and Jordan Walker tied the game before a sterling fightback was pushed over the line by veteran first baseman Paul Goldschmidt in the fourth inning. The bullpen then saw off the Cubs’ offence.

London Stadium finally works for MLB

There are always lessons to learn from these events and organisers stemmed the ridiculous flow of runs that poured out in 2019’s London Series with a deeper outfield - even if both games still hit double figures (only half did so Stateside on Saturday night, by way of comparison). That meant fewer sneers at Stratford, which also looked and functioned better with an adjusted layout.

Around the stadium, the atmosphere bubbled away nicely and the whole feel of the place just worked. Getting on the tube afterwards also didn’t require a sleeping bag and toothbrush.

Yet, ticket prices were undoubtedly a big reason behind a fairly considerable smattering of empty seats on day two. That cannot happen again if MLB is to flex its muscles off the pitch as much as it has on it this weekend.