ST. LOUIS — There was good news — and a snippet of old news for Cardinals right-hander Dakota Hudson Friday night.
On the plus side, Hudson worked at a brisker pace as he and catcher Andrew Knizner employed the new PitchCom method of signals between the battery men. The sinker baller also recorded eight groundouts in the first four innings, including throwing a key double-play ball with the bases loaded and one out in the third inning.
However ...
Hudson also walked four hitters for the third time in nine starts this season. He didn’t allow a run in 4 2/3 innings but it took him 97 pitches to get that far.
The Cardinals’ bullpen and Paul Goldschmidt and Edmundo Sosa did the rest, though, in a 4-2 win over the Brewers at Busch Stadium.
Goldschmidt, extending his hitting streak to 18 games, smacked a two-run homer in the third. Sosa tripled home a run as a pinch hitter in the seventh and then dashed home to score another run on a fielder’s choice grounder.
Relievers Drew VerHagen, Genesis Cabrera, Kodi Whitley and Ryan Helsley shut down the Brewers on three hits over the final 4 1/3 innings although one of the Brewers' hits was a two-run homer by Keston Hiura off Whitley in the ninth. Hesley's save was his third and he still has given up only two hits in 16 1/3 innings, with first baseman Goldschmidt contributing a sliding stop on the final play of the game.
The Brewers had the best early chance. They loaded the bases in the third with one out on Hudson’s first two walks and a single to center by Luis Urias. Andrew McCutchen ran the count full but rapped a grounder to third baseman Nolan Arenado, who started an inning-ending double play with Nolan Gorman’s pivot and throw from second.
This was the Cardinals’ second double play of the night. As Christian Yelich took strike three in the first, former Cardinal Kolten Wong was cut down stealing by catcher Andrew Knizner.
Milwaukee right-hander Brandon Woodruff held the Cardinals without a hit for two innings before Harrison Bader singled off the backhand attempt by second baseman Wong with one out in the third. Bader then stole his 12th base without being caught and went to third on Tommy Edman’s fly to deep left center.
Goldschmidt, who had fanned in 10 of 28 career at-bats against Woodruff, got the upper hand on this occasion. Off a 97-mph sinker, he drilled his ninth homer into the Brewers’ bullpen in left center, accounting for the first two runs of the night.
In the groove, Hudson then sailed through the fourth, inducing three more groundouts, featuring a spinning play by Arenado.
But, in the fifth, Hiura and Yelich walked and Wong singled to left. Yelich’s walk, his second, prompted Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol to remove Hudson for right-hander VerHagen. Quickly, VerHagen induced McCutchen to ground to Arenado, who stepped on third for the inning-ending force as the Cardinals dodged their second bases-loaded quandary of the night.
Hudson lasted longer than Woodruff. The burly Brewer, after throwing a warmup toss or two, came of the game before the Cardinals’ fifth with ankle discomfort and right-hander Luis Perdomo relieved.
VerHagen was one (out) and done for the Cardinals, who turned to left-hander Genesis Cabrera in the sixth. Cabrera allowed a single to Omar Navaez but also struck out two.
Perdomo proffered the Cardinals a gift in the sixth when he knocked down Arenado’s grounder to his left and, without looking, flipped to first ... except that first baseman Rowdy Tellez had moved to make a play on the ball and couldn’t get to first in time to corral the throw which rolled into foul territory.
Arenado got to second but Albert Pujols popped up.
Gorman made a nifty, short-hop grab of Wong’s smash to his left for the second out of the Milwaukee seventh.
The Cardinals then tacked on two runs in their portion of the inning.
Juan Yepez singled off the glove of Wong, who nearly made an acrobatic over-the-shoulder play in short center. Sosa, hitting for Gorman against left-hander Brent Suter, tripled into the left-center-field gap to score Yepez.
After Knizner fouled out, Lars Nootbaar hit a chopper to Tellez, who threw home but the throw wasn’t on target to catch Sosa, who dived across the plate after getting a swift start from third.
