The Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers, the two favorites in the National League Central Division and both playoff teams last season, have played two series of four games apiece this season. Little has been settled.
The Cardinals won two of four in Milwaukee in April and the Brewers, by virtue of their 8-0 win at Busch Stadium Sunday, captured two games in this four-game set. Milwaukee came to town 3 1/2 games ahead of the Cardinals, which is the same margin with which they left town.
The decisive blow was a three-run homer off the bat of Milwaukee’s Jace Peterson in the fifth inning. But, also decisive is that the Cardinals didn’t score a run for Mikolas while he has been on the mound for the fifth time in his 10 starts.
They had only two runners in scoring position against Milwaukee starter Corbin Burnes. Both those came in the fourth when Brendan Donovan flied to left. Burnes, the reigning Cy Young Award winner, gave up just two hits and struck out 11 in seven innings.
The Brewers scored a two-out run in the first but right fielder Donovan prevented further damage by making a running catch before he banged the wall on Lorenzo Cain's drive.
Tyrone Taylor singled to left with two out and Omar Narvaez, who had three hits, doubled into the right-field corner. Donovan corralled the ball but his return throw to the infield skipped past first relay man Nolan Gorman and by the time shortstop Tommy Edman got it, Edman had no play at the plate.
In the fourth, nearly the same thing happened. Rowdy Tellez singled to center with two out and Taylor doubled to right center. But Donovan cut the ball off before it reached the wall and fired back to the infield. Again, the ball went to second relay man Edman. This time, Edman fired a strike home to catcher Knizner, who tagged the sliding—and tiring—Tellez to end the inning.
Burnes struck out five of the nine men to face him through three perfect innings in which only one ball, a fly to left by Paul Goldschmidt, went to the outfield.
Gorman became the first base runner for the Cardinals, working a nine-pitch walk with one out in the fourth. After Goldschmidt became Burnes’ seventh strikeout—he had been eight for 18 in his career against Burnes--Juan Yepez doubled to left, with Gorman stopping at third.
But Burnes escaped, retiring Donovan on a fly ball to left.
The Brewers then delivered a dagger in the fifth. After Navaez drew Mikolas’ only walk, a leadoff pass, and Cain singled, ninth-place hitter Peterson, nothing for nine in his career against Mikolas, came to the plate. There was a day when in a 1-0 game, the ninth-place hitter would have tried to sacrifice in such a situation.
Peterson showed clearly those days are gone. He ripped a 1-0 Mikolas slider for a three-run homer to right. Peterson’s fourth home run of the season put the Brewers ahead 4-0.
Tellez cracked his 10th homer of the season with one out in the sixth. Narvaez then got a triple as Donovan missed on a diving catch with two out in the inning. Mikolas’ career-high 115th pitch resulted in a grounder up the middle by Cain. Edman got to the ball but threw wide of Goldschmidt and Narvaez scored.
Mikolas left for left-hander T.J. McFarland. Mikolas’ pitch total was the most in a defeat for a Cardinals starter since 2017 when Lance Lynn threw 118 over six innings in a 3-0 loss to San Diego. He walked three to one for Mikolas.
Cain finished the scoring with a two-run homer off Nick Wittgren in the eighth. Goldschmidt's hitting streak was not finished. He slashed a single to right off Brent Sutter in the ninth to run his streak with a hit to 20 games his on-base skein to 34.
