After Friday’s quiet offensive night, the Cubs could not have asked for a better bounce-back performance against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

And it was all sparked by their leadoff hitter, Michael Busch, who is easily entrenching himself as a “Cardinal Killer”.

The Cubs first baseman led the game off with a double, followed it up with a three-run home run an inning later and proved catalyst for a much-needed, 9-1 blowout victory over the Cardinals on Friday night. The blast was Busch’s 22nd of the season, setting a single-season career high for the 27-year-old.

“It’s always nice to help this club, especially when we’re scuffling a little bit,” Busch told reporters after the game. “Always nice to get some runs on the board.”

Busch was one of the four key cogs for the Cubs offense that had been stuck in a rut of late. It’s not uncommon for a player or two in a lineup to be struggling at any given time for a team – it’s the nature of a 162-game season. It’s rare to see four players – especially the team’s best quartet of hitters – be stuck in the mud at the same time.

Busch, Seiya Suzuki, Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong entered Saturday with a .194/.302/.332 slash line (.634 OPS with seven home runs and 21 RBI since the All-Star break.

Friday night, that foursome went 2-for-15 in the 5-0 loss. They reached base six times on Saturday and were part of a relentless offensive barrage that scored six times before they had recorded six outs.

Sure, Crow-Armstrong has yet to hit his groove – he was 0-for-5 on Saturday and is 2-for-29 (.069) since the calendar flipped to August. But the Cubs don’t need all four of those hitters to be clicking at the same time. They’ll take it, but this offense is so much better when even one or two of those four are essentially carrying the offense.

Saturday night, it was Busch who helped do that.

And he did so versus a team he’s becoming increasingly comfortable against. In eight games against St. Louis, Busch is 15-for-34 (.441) with six home runs, 11 RBI and a whopping 1.531 OPS.

Is this the catalyst for an offensive explosion from Busch or even Suzuki or Tucker? That’s hard to say and won’t be answered for a few days. But it’s a good stepping stone and one the Cubs hope continues Sunday as they look to take the series.

“Yeah, matter of time, but also we know what we’re capable of and trying to do that each and every day, no matter if we’re you’re doing really well, doing bad,” Busch said. “Just showing up and trying to put our best foot forward.

“It’s just stacking the wins, trying to get as many wins as we can. Flush this one and then try to win again tomorrow.”