During the first three months of the 2022 Major League Baseball season, and especially Wednesday night, the Milwaukee Brewers did an excellent job of reversing their fate against one of the St.
The Brewers chased the Cardinals starting Adam Wainwright in the fifth inning at American Family Field, the third time in as many games this year they’ve jumped on the veteran’s right.
The beer problem, though? The match was held in Milwaukee and still has Cardinals Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado.
Goldschmidt and Arenado, two of the strongest hitters in American Family Field history, were the thorns in the Brewers’ side once again, blasting their two-running homer as St. Louis edged out Milwaukee, 5-4, on Wednesday night.
Result box:Cardinals 5, Brewers 4
The Cardinals regained their one-game National Central lead over the Brewers after winning back-to-back wins.
Goldschmidt and Arenado are both in the top six OPS at Miller Park/American Family Field in stadium history with the Arenado’s 1,165 mark entering the day higher than anyone since it opened in 2001.
“It’s definitely out there,” said Brewers’ Eric Lauer, who ditched his teammates for both, about where the Cardinal duo stand among the league’s best punches. “Both are really good hitters. They are having great years.”
Goldschmidt opened the scoring with a towering two-round blast with one exit in the first, his 16th career home run in Milwaukee in just his 54th game. Just tracks Joey Foto, Albert Pujols and Yadir Molina at Brewers Stadium for a player who hasn’t played a home game there.
This was not the stadium Lauer wanted to return to.
“For me, it was a good move,” Lauer said. “It was where I really wanted it. He didn’t really seem to get it. I think it was 96 (mph off the bat). I didn’t feel like it was a bad throw by any means; a good hitter hit good ground and it wasn’t helpful to have a little bit of Broken bats right before her.
“This is just baseball kicking me in the teeth a little bit.”
Arenado fired an unquestionable two-stroke shot in the sixth that was a backbreaker at the top of the sixth, moments after the Brewers held the lead against Wainwright. This was Arenado’s thirteenth homeowner in his 34th game at American Family Field, giving the St. Louis third baseman as many long balls as hits on the field. He also has 12 doubles and 13 walks.
Homer came up on a hanging pass from Lauer that he wouldn’t be able to get out of his mind for a few hours until after the match.
“It’s really the only hit that will keep me up at night,” Lauer said. “Tonight is only about one stadium. I changed everything on the baseline and throughout the match. It was the match.”
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Lauer became the first pitcher for Brewers since 2019 to allow at least 17 times over three starts and the tenth in history to let go of eight homers in such a stretch as well.
Over his last three starts, opponents have been hitting 7 for 16 with six hurdles, three walks and only two hits against Lauer on the third time in the order.
“The last half for starters, it’s a poor turn,” Brewers director Craig Konsell said. “that’s normal.”
The Brewers did a good job of tagging Wainwright, who has won his career 20 times against them as the sixth most active player of all time and is by far the most active player this season. The 40-year-old right-hand man allowed 11 earned passes in 14 innings against Milwaukee (earned run average of 7.07) while posting a 2.57 ERA in 70 runs against the rest of the league. His three shortest games of the season came against the Brewers.
On Wednesday, Rowdy Tellez and Andrew McCutchen hit their singles teammates before a fifth-stroke rally knocked Wainwright out after 4 frames. Tyrone Taylor picked and scored both goals by Christian Yelich who missed his left-back in Cardinals Juan Ypez in the caution path, then Yelich gave the Brewers a 4-3 lead with a two-goal from the basement by McCutchen by 2.
McCutchen has been one of the best bats at the Brewers since he picked up a 1 for 40 slip earlier this month. After his RBI double, the designated hitter was hitting a slash of .365/.468/.538 on his last 62 appearances on the board.
“Cutch had a really nice match tonight, for sure,” Counsell said.
But after the Cardinal took the lead in sixth place, the Brewers went goalless over 4 rounds against the St. Louis Bullpen duo of Johan Oviedo and Genesis Cabrera.
“No matter who’s in the game, we got 13 goals in the game against the football player,” Koncell said. “We need to be able to run on the board. At the same time, they throw the ball really well but when you get a start before the end of the fifth half you hope there are enough cracks against the ball that we can collect something.”
The Brewers have struggled not only in this series against the Cardinals Bullpen, having not scored any goals in 11 innings over their last three games, but throughout the year. In 22 innings against St. Louis’s five best loyalists, as measured by the baseball reference scale of win over substitution, Milwaukee scored just one run.
One last rally attempt featured Milwaukee in the ninth against Cabrera.
With two wins, a tie round per second and a win at the start, Yelich hit a hanging ball 1-0 into the ground to end the match.
“They have a really good stylus,” said Brewers’ Jes Peterson. “Everyone gets out there throwing really hard and they have good stuff too. We were in the game, we couldn’t finish it. But, yeah, they have a really good pen.”