After a terrible roadtrip saw the St. Louis Cardinals go 1-6 and their manager respond with a subtle dig at the front office, the team finally returned to their safe haven of Busch Stadium for a three-game set against the NL Central rival Milwaukee Brewers. As the home team, the Cardinals came into this series with an 8-4 record and improved on that division-best mark.
Game one saw Matthew Liberatore continue his great run as a starting pitcher and lead the way to a 3-2 victory. Sonny Gray matched that performance in the second game, but a rare blown save from Ryan Helsley set up a Nolan Arenado walk-off homer. The Cardinals had a chance to sweep the Brewers and gain some more ground in the Central, but Erick Fedde allowed plenty of traffic on the bases and St. Louis had to settle for a series win.
GAME ONE (W 3-2)
Both pitchers were able to keep the game scoreless for the first three innings and did not see much trouble on the bases in the process. Lars Nootbaar led off the game with a walk for the ninth time, a new record for lead-off walks, but was picked off after mistiming the pitcher and broke too early for a stolen base attempt. The Cardinals were able to get a runner to second against Brewers starter Chad Patrick (1-2) in the third when Victor Scott II singled and stole second, but Scott was left stranded.
The Cardinals finally broke through in the fourth inning on a well-manufactured run. Brendan Donovan drew a lead-off walk and moved up to third after a Nolan Arenado single to right. Nolan Gorman, the starting designated hitter, then drove in Donovan with a sacrifice fly, with Arenado taking second on a good base running play. He would be left stranded in scoring position but the Cardinals held a 1-0 lead.
The home team went back to work and added to their lead in the fifth. Shortstop Masyn Winn, who returned from the injured list on Tuesday in Atlanta, looked healthy when he knocked a one-out single and moved up to third when he stole second base but the throw trickled into center. All Nootbaar needed to do was hit another fly ball but he did one better, driving in Winn with a single. Willson Contreras followed up with a double to put runners on second and third for Donovan. After being driven in for a run last inning, Donovan decided to return the favor, knocking in Winn on with another single but Contreras was thrown out at home on an awkward play at the plate.
Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore (2-2) would give one back to the Brewers in the top of the fifth. After two quick outs, the lefty gave up a double to young outfielder Jackson Chourio who as then driven in on a 105.9 mph single by former-MVP Christian Yelich. That was all the damage that Libertore allowed in the inning as a force out kept the Cardinals ahead 3-1.
Oli Marmol opted to send Liberatore back out to the mound in the seventh, most likely to face just the left handed hitting Sal Frelick before going to the bullpen but things got more messy than they should have. Arenado, a 10-time Gold Glove winner, looked to have a simple out when he camped under a foul pop up but he took his eyes off the ball too early and it dropped for an error on a foul ball. As it goes in baseball, Frelick would then smack a line drive double to left, ending Liberatore’s day when Marmol went to Kyle Leahy. Rhys Hoskins, the Brewers hottest hitter, greeted Leahy with a single, and after a walk, Jake Bauers knocked in Frelick with a productive groundout to second. Leahy wiggled out of the jam keeping the lead intact when a sharp grounder to short was handled without the runner advancing then got an easy fly ball to keep runners stranded on second and third.
With the Cardinals ahead 3-2 in the eighth, the Brewers threatened to get to the bullpen again when Phil Maton had runners on first and third with only one out against the middle of the lineup. Arenado made up for his mistake with one of the better plays of his storied career. A slow hit grounder took him to his left with no chance to turn the double play so he opted to throw home, against his body, and threw a perfect strike to Pedro Pages, who put the tag on the tying run for the out. Maton responded to the huge play by striking out Hoskins to end the inning with the Cardinals hanging onto the lead.
The Cardinals could not add an insurance run in the bottom of the inning, setting up Ryan Helsley to come in for his first save opportunity since April 16. Helsley received an inning after a long layoff and struggled with his command in a two walk appearance against Atlanta but he was well-rested for this chance. He promptly allowed a single to Isaac Collins but erased the leadoff man with a double play ball. Helsley would complete his fourth save when he got the next hitter to line out to center, sealing a 3-2 Cardinals win.
GAME TWO (W 6-5)
The Cardinals offense stayed productive early and often in game two, backing a great start from rotation number one Sonny Gray. After getting held scoreless in the first inning, the Cardinals scored at least one run in each of the next three frames. Nolan Gorman doubled to start the second inning and Thomas Saggese inside out a pitch for a productive grounder to the right side and then Pedro Pages drove in the run with a sacrifice fly.
The third started the same as the second, this time with Masyn Winn smacking his first double of the year. Rather than a grounder though, Lars Nootbaar hit a double of his own, driving in Winn. Left fielder Brendan Donovan replaced Nootbaar at second when he hit a one-out RBI double. After an out, the Cardinals worked back-to-back walks to load the bases but Brewers starter Quinn Priester got Pages to ground out and end the inning with a 3-0 score.
Gray had to work around a couple baserunners in the top of the fourth but he managed to keep the Brewers off the board thanks to some good defense. In the Cardinals half of the inning, they got another double from Winn, this time with one out, but Nootbaar knocked him in again and moved up to second on the throw to the plate. Willson Contreras followed with a ground ball up the middle that second baseman Brice Turang was able to get to, but his off balance throw was not picked at first by Rhys Hoskins and went to the dugout, allowing Donovan to score. The next two hitters would go down quietly but the Cardinals went ahead 5-0 going into the middle innings.
The Brewers finally got to Gray in the fifth but the veteran righty, with the help of his defense, did a good job to limit the damage to just two runs. Victor Scott II made a diving catch to start the inning that ended up being even more important than it seemed as each of the next two Milwaukee batters doubled. A costly mistake by Brewers rookie Caleb Durbin helped to put out the fire when he was picked off leaving early for third base. With two outs, Gray then walked Turang before Jackson Chourio drove in the second run of the inning with a double. Gray escaped without further damage when he got Christian Yelich to strikeout looking.
The sixth brought more problems for Gray when two singles and a walk loaded the bases with just one out. Enter the St. Louis defense again. A potential two-run single up the middle was tipped off Gray’s glove before Saggese made a stunning diving play and tough throw to get the second out on a force play at second. A run would score but the next batter flew out to keep the score 5-3 and Gray ended his day with a six-inning quality start.
The chaos continued in the seventh when reliever Stevan Matz came into the game and allowed a one-out single to Chourio. Yelich followed with a grounder to first that Willson Contreras fielded and threw to second, but the ball his the extended hand of Chourio who was running in the infield grass and deflected into the outfield. The base ump correctly ruled the play dead due to Chourio’s interference and manager Dale Murphy attempted to spark some energy into his club and got ejected for the facetious argument. Riley O’Brien, in his first appearance since his recall from Memphis, got William Contreras to pop out.
The Cardinals looked to seal their victory with the steady hands of Phil Maton and Ryan Helsley (1-0) again at the back of the bullpen. After Maton pitched a scoreless eighth, Helsley was called upon after nailing down his fourth save less than 24 hours prior. A lead-off single and fly out brought Chourio up with one out and he took the wind out of Busch Stadium when he turned on a hanging slider and hit it 395 feet for a game-tying home run. Helsley would get the next two batters out but the damage was done.
The Brewers opted to bring in their closer, Trevor Megill (0-2), in the bottom of the inning and he was greeted with some hard contact that ultimately ended his day, and the game, quickly. Donovan lined out sharply on a ball he hit 102.6 mph to bring up Nolan Arenado, who was 0-for-3 on the day. A day after making a game-saving defense play, Arenado had a game-ended hit, hammering a walk-off home run to left to give the Cardinals a 6-5 victory.
GAME THREE (L 7-1)
Erick Fedde (1-3) looked to keep the Cardinals pitching rolling as the team had three consecutive quality starts heading into the third game against the Brewers. That dream was short-lived, however, as lead-off baserunners finally got to Fedde. The Brewers did little to let the Cardinals starter settle in as six of the first seven batters reached base and put St. Louis in a 3-0 hole before the fans got settled into their seats.
Former friend, now rival Jose Quintana (4-0) got all the help he needed in that first inning and silenced the Cardinals for most of the afternoon. He received even more support in the fourth inning when Fedde allowed the first man of the inning to reach for the fourth consecutive inning. This was an ominous beginning to an inning to forget. By the time Fedde finally got out of the fourth, four more runs had crossed the plate to put the Cardinals in an uphill battle to comeback for the sweep, falling behind 7-0 against Quintana.
The Brewers lefty stymied the Cardinals all game, tallying six strikeouts, all of the looking variety, in his five innings of work. He allowed one run in his last inning, when Brendan Donovan drove in Nootbaar with a double but that was all the offense could muster on the day. They had plenty of baserunners, knocking seven hits and talking six walks on the day, but the team went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position after doing well in those opportunities all series long.
A positive note in the disappointing loss is that JoJo Romero, Matt Svanson, and John King combined to throw 3.1 innings of scoreless relief, striking out three and only allowing two baserunners.
The Cardinals drop to 12-16 on the season and sit in fourth place in the NL Central, 1.5 games behind the Brewers who are now 14-15. The Cardinals will now head to Cincinnati for a four-game series against the Reds as they try to put their road woes behind them.
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