Kyle Lohse Rocked By Former Team, Milwaukee Brewers Lose At St. Louis
By Phil Watson
Right-hander Kyle Lohse had his start moved up from Sunday to Saturday when rookie Jimmy Nelson developed a blister on his pitching hand.
Lohse might have wished he had waited a day after his former team, the St. Louis Cardinals, lit him up for a career-high tying nine runs (seven earned) in four-plus innings as the Cards climbed back to within two games of the National League Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers with a 9-7 win Saturday night at Busch Stadium.
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Lohse (11-6) gave up nine hits and walked three while striking out two before manager Ron Roenicke cried uncle on his behalf with two runs in, two men on and no one out in the bottom of the fifth.
The Brewers (61-50) took an early lead, going up 1-0 against Cardinals right-hander Justin Masterson—making his St. Louis debut after being acquired from the Cleveland Indians in a trade on Wednesday.
Gerardo Parra, starting his first game for Milwaukee after he was picked up in a deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday, worked a one-out walk and with two outs stole second.
Aramis Ramirez singled to left to score Parra.
But Kolten Wong evened things up in the bottom of the first, touching Lohse for his seventh home run of the season.
The wheels fell off for Lohse in the second.
Jhonny Peralta clubbed his 15th home run of the season to lead off the inning before Lohse bounced back to get the next two hitters.
But he walked Tony Cruz and Masterson singled to right before Matt Carpenter drew a walk to load the bases.
Wong followed with a two-run single to right to put the Cardinals (58-51) up 4-1. It became a 6-1 game when Matt Holliday singled to left to score Carpenter, with Wong also scoring and Holliday moving up to second base when Parra’s throw from left field was off the mark.
The Brewers battled against Masterson (5-6 overall), getting three runs back in the top of the fourth. Ryan Braun and Ramirez led off with back-to-back singles and, after Jonathan Lucroy hit into a fielder’s choice, Lyle Overbay walked to load the bases.
Scooter Gennett, back in the lineup after sitting out with a sore hand on Friday, doubled to center to score a pair of runs and Jean Segura followed with an RBI groundout.
Carpenter had a sacrifice fly for St. Louis in the bottom of the fourth that put the Cards up 7-4.
In the fifth, Carlos Gomez led off with an infield single, stole second, moved to third on a sacrifice by Parra and scored on a groundout by Braun.
The fifth, though, was the end of the line for Lohse. Holliday singled, Matt Adams walked and Peralta singled to load the bases before Oscar Taveras doubled to center to score two runs and end Lohse’s night.
Right-hander Brandon Kintzler escaped the mess, beginning when Peralta was caught in a rundown between third and home on Peter Bourjos’ ground ball to third.
Ramirez then threw out Taveras at the plate on a grounder by Cruz before Kintzler struck out Masterson.
The Brewers got to left-hander Kevin Siegrist in the seventh. Elian Herreta led off with a single and scored on Gomez’s double to the left-center field gap. Gomez stole third and eventually scored on another Braun groundout.
Trevor Rosenthal allowed a first-pitch double to Segura in the top of the ninth, then caught a break after replay overturned a hit by pitch call on Herrera, with replay ruling the ball hit the end of his bat. Herrera grounded out before Rosenthal struck out the final two batters for his NL-leading 33rd save.
Marco Estrada worked two scoreless innings, allowing two hits and a walk and fanning two, and Tom Gorzelanny gave up a hit and fanned two in the eighth.
Ramirez had three of Milwaukee’s 10 hits, Gennett was 2-for-3 before being pulled in a double switch to start the bottom of the sixth and Gomez was 2-for-5.
Wong was 3-for-5 for the Cardinals.
Milwaukee’s lead shrank to 1½ games over the Pittsburgh Pirates, who were 8-3 winners at Arizona on Saturday.
The series wraps up Sunday at 1:15 p.m., with right-hander Matt Garza (7-7, 3.74 ERA) facing right-hander John Lackey, who will be making his debut for the Cardinals after he was acquired Thursday from the Boston Red Sox.
Lackey was 11-7 with a 3.60 ERA for Boston prior to the trade.