MILWAUKEE — On Tuesday, the Cardinals had one hit for seven innings and two for 10 before exploding for five runs to prevail in the 11th. Play it again, Sam, as on Wednesday night, the Cardinals again had one hit for seven innings before rallying.
Milwaukee righthander Brandon Woodruff had dominated them on Wednesday, striking out 10 and allowing only two base runners until Tyler O’Neill lifted a low slider and powered it over the right-field wall to tie the game at 1-1 with one out in the eighth. Woodruff had yielded just 16 hits over his previous 45 innings.
But there was no extra-inning magic this time. With two out and nobody on in the eighth, the Brewers started their own rally, a winning one, with a strikeout. Daniel Vogelbach whiffed but made it to first safely as Ryan Helsley’s high wild pitch on strike three eluded catcher Yadier Molina.
Travis Shaw doubled to right center where right fielder Dylan Carlson made an excellent pick of the carom off the wall. But Carlson’s relay to the infield skipped past second baseman Tommy Edman and shortstop Edmundo Sosa picked the ball up and threw home too late as pinch runner Pablo Reyes scored the go-ahead run.
Avisail Garcia then took much of the mystery out of the chase with a long home run and the Brewers had evened the series with a 4-1 victory. The Cardinals had two runners on in the ninth against Josh Hader but Molina struck out.
The Brewers, who had been 15 for their past 94 men in scoring position, pushed across a run without benefit of a hit in the sixth as center fielder Harrison Bader made an error after a remarkable catch.
Cardinals starter John Gant, beset with control problems in three of his past four starts, walked only two and gave up three hits through five innings. But, ultimately, Gant’s control failed him. Gant hit Cain near the left elbow to open the Milwaukee sixth and walked Vogelbach on four pitches. That was the end at 91 pitches for Gant, to be replaced by Genesis Cabrera with two on and nobody out.
Bader had been a standout defensively on Tuesday but he slipped and fell on the warning track as he went for Shaw’s long drive. Bader managed to scoot along the track to make a startling grab but, in Bader’s zeal to extract the ball from the glove and get it back to the infield, he lost control of the ball, which rolled away, and Cain scored all the way from second on Bader’s error.
Cain had evened the score with Bader, who tagged up on a medium-depth fly ball to center fielder Cain the night before and made it to third base, from where he scored the tying run.
Until the eighth, Woodruff allowed only Bader’s bloop single to center in the sixth.
The only Cardinals runner in the first five innings was Nolan Arenado, who reached first safely when first baseman Vogelbach dropped a slightly off-line throw from second baseman Kolten Wong in the second inning.
Gant gave up two infield hits in the first inning. But left fielder O’Neill dived full-length to snatch a hit from former Cardinal Wong in the third.
Gant walked Cain with two out in the third. Cain stole second ahead of Molina’s strong throw from his knees. Then, Gant, just missing, walked Vogelbach to give the Brewers two runners and prompting a visit from pitching coach Mike Maddux with Shaw at bat.
After falling behind Shaw at 2-0, Gant induced the Brewers’ cleanup man to pop to shortstop Paul DeJong. Gant, matching Woodruff as best he could, fanned the side in the fourth.
The closest the Cardinals came to a hit through five innings was when Molina hit a hard grounder headed for center field with one out in the fifth. Shortstop Luis Urias dived on the outfield grass, just behind the dirt, to make the stop, bounced to his feet and fired a one-hopper to Vogelbach, catching Molina by a couple of steps.
Woodruff then made O’Neill his seventh strikeout victim.
After the inning, DeJong departed with tightness in his left side and Sosa took over in the field.
Manny Pina opened the Milwaukee fifth with a single into right center against the shift for the first hit to the outfield all night. But Gant plucked off Woodruff’s sacrifice attempt which became a popup and threw to Edman, covering the bag at first, for a double play.
Bader, who had the Cardinals’ only hit to the outfield in the first 10 innings in Tuesday, plopped a single in front of center fielder Cain to start the sixth.
Gant laid down a successful sacrifice bunt on a 1-2 pitch and Edman bunted toward third, trying for a hit. But Woodruff approached the ball quickly and fired a one-hopper to first where Vogelbach made an excellent pickup. Woodruff fanned Dylan Carlson for strikeout No. 8.
