Milwaukee Brewers stumble past Cardinals, spoil St. Louis’ home opener
By Phil Watson
If you were looking for a tutorial on how best to play winning baseball, Monday’s game between the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals will not likely be choice material.
But for a team starved for a win after a dreadful 1-5 homestand to open the season, the Brewers’ 5-4 win over the Cardinals in St. Louis’ home opener at Busch Stadium was as beautiful as a shiny diamond.
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Matt Garza (1-1) walked five batters in 5.2 innings Monday, yet got his first win in six starts at Busch Stadium, working his way through having no real command of his offspeed stuff and some problems behind him defensively while allowing two runs, one earned, and striking out four while surrendering six hits.
The largest crowd in the history of the third stadium to bear the Busch name went home disappointed as the Brewers broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the sixth and padded the lead with two more tallies in the seventh.
Those two runs would turn out to be valuable because the defense wasn’t done throwing the ball all over the 314 area code.
With the score tied 2-2 in the top of the sixth, Ryan Braun led off with a ground ball single to right and red-hot Adam Lind lined a double to right to put runners at second and third with no one out. Aramis Ramirez got the go-ahead run home with a ground ball to short.
But the rally ended there as Khris Davis struck out looking and Jean Segura ‘s liner was right at first baseman Matt Adams.
In the top of the seventh, Scooter Gennett led off with a single and Logan Schafer laid down a sacrifice bunt as a pinch-hitter. Carlos Gomez doubled to left to chase home Gennett and Jonathan Lucroy reached on an infield single, with Gomez scoring on a throwing error by Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong.
Jeremy Jeffress came on to protect the three-run cushion, but the inning started badly when Segura’s throw to first on Matt Holliday’s grounder was off the mark. After Adams singled, Jeffress uncorked a wild pitch to move runners to second and third and Jhonny Peralta made it a one-run game with an opposite-field double to right.
But Jeffress punched his way off the ropes, getting a fly out, a ground out and a soft comebacker to strand the tying run at third.
Jonathan Broxton worked around a single in the eighth and Francisco Rodriguez worked a 1-2-3 ninth to get his first save of the season and the 349th of his career. Will Smith struck out the only batter he faced to get the final out of the sixth.
“We let them back in the game, but we did a lot of good things,” manager Ron Roenicke told MLB.com. “Offensively, I like the way we battled and scratched out some runs. It’s good to see we can do that instead of always having to hit the home run.”
Apr 13, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Jean Segura (9) throws the ball to first base after a put out on St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday (7) at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
As for Garza’s outing, he liked the outcome, even if the way he got there wasn’t aesthetically pleasing.
“I was a little out of whack and had to keep making pitches,” Garza told MLB.com. “I’m not proud of the five walks … but I’m happy to be on the ‘W’ side.”
He threw 100 pitches, just 60 for strikes.
The Brewers took a 1-0 lead against Cards’ ace Adam Wainwright in the top of the first. Gomez reached on Wong’s first error of the day, moved up when Lucroy walked and after Gomez moved up to third on a flyout by Braun, Lind brought in the run with a groundout to second.
Milwaukee (2-5) made it 2-0 in the second on another manufactured run. Davis led off with a single, went to third on Segura’s double to center that caromed off the glove of right fielder Jason Heyward, and scored on Gennett’s groundout.
St. Louis (3-3) got a run back in the third on Adams’ RBI groundout after a Matt Carpenter double and a hit by Holliday and tied the game in the fourth.
Garza opened the inning with back-to-back walks and when Wainwright bunted the ball too far up the third-base line, Ramirez quickly threw to Segura, who covered third, for the force out.
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But Segura’s throw to first to try and double up Wainwright was airmailed over Lind’s head, allowing Wong to score all the way from first to tie the game.
Segura’s redemption came in the eighth, when he stole a hit from Carpenter with a diving stop.
“You can’t control making errors in the game,” Segura told MLB.com. “It’s part of being human in baseball. I don’t want to make any mistakes, but just don’t stop. Come strong and keep doing your best and be ready for the next one. I make those two errors and then I make the diving play that might save the game. It was a big play to me.”
The Brewers and Cardinals will take Tuesday off before resuming the series on Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. Wily Peralta (0-0, 2.57 ERA, 1.000 WHIP) starts for Milwaukee while St. Louis has right-hander Lance Lynn (0-1, 1.50, 0.500) scheduled.
Peralta is 1-2 lifetime at Busch Stadium with a 4.62 ERA and 1.303 WHIP in four career starts. Lynn has a 5-2 record with a 2.26 ERA and 1.167 WHIP in 14 career outings, 10 of them starts, against the Brewers.