MILWAUKEE _ By the time he ran his own personal scoreless inning streak to 24 innings, Kwang Hyun Kim had also helped keep the Milwaukee Brewers searching, groping, seeking a run of any type for the first time in 21 innings.
With baseball's extra-inning booster, they got two in the eighth.
That was enough to upend the Cardinals, take Game 1, and spoil the lefty's brilliant return to the rotation.
Keston Hiura's sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the eighth inning brought up Avisail Garcia to send the Brewers to a 2-1 victory in the first half of a doubleheader Monday night at Miller Park. The sacrifice fly came off lefty Austin Gomber _ an appearance that seems ready to assure Johan Oviedo's start Wednesday _ but the bigger hit was a double to dead center field by Ryan Braun that erased the Cardinals' lead and put the walk-off win in motion.
The two teams were scoreless through the regulation seven innings of Game 1.
Tommy Edman struck with a single to score pinch-runner Tyler O'Neill and give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
Kim was in command for the seven innings he pitched. He held the Brewers to three hits and he struck out six, and he got 21 outs on 87 pitches. Without John Gant (groin) or Giovanny Gallegos (groin), the Cardinals went to Ryan Helsley to close the game. Braun tagged Helsley for the game-tying double, and that prompted the machinations that brought Gomber into the game.
