Cards late rally falls short; Brewers avoid sweep, 3-2

Yadier Molina and his first-place St. Louis Cardinals had the sweep completed at the tip of there fingers. A leadoff walk to Matt Holliday followed by a single from Carlos Beltran that advanced pinch-runner Tyler Greene to third; putting runners on the corners, nobody out, and a 3-2 Brewer lead.

Following a five-pitch strikeout of David Freese, Yadier Molina came up to the plate--who is someone that strike's out less than just about everyone in baseball. On a 1-2 count from Brewers' closer John Axford, Tyler Greene took off on a pitch that struck Molina out, and in a run-down, ultimately ended the game and the Cardinals late ninth inning rally once they tagged out Greene at home-plate.

The uncommon 'strike him out; throw him out' double play happened, ending the defending world champion Cardinals overall win streak of four games; and putting the Brewers back at four games behind in the division race.

In what was a pitchers' duel through the first six innings, in which Jaime Garcia and St. Louis had held a 1-to-0 lead, the Brewers got a very impressive start from starting pitcher Zack Greinke, as well as a much-needed two-run double off the bat of Jonathan Lucroy in the top of the six that drove in both Aramis Ramirez and Corey Hart to put Milwaukee up 3-to-1; and ultimately proving to be the game-winning hit.

Cardinals started Jaime Garcia was given the lost despite the pretty impressive start overall. He lasted seven-innings in the game, giving up three runs on nine hits over the span of 98 total pitches. Garcia struck out six batters as well, and allowed just one 'base-on-balls', which was to the Brewers lead-off man, Rickie Weeks.

Brewers starter Zack Greinke pretty much stole the show from the mound though. This was the most efficient start that I have seen from him through four starts--despite the fact that he walked four Cardinal batters. He allowed one run on seven hits in six innings of work and struck out two. The win improved Greinke to 3-1 on the season, and bumped his earned-run average down to 3.94 on the season--while Jaime's improved to 2.78 for the year.

The Cardinals bullpen was certainly as efficient as you can be. Both Kyle McClellan and Marc Rzepczynski pitched one inning of work--and through just a total of 15 pitches. The two combined for just one strikeout--but gave up no runs, no hits and no base-runners--which in my opinion is pretty impressive for late-inning work with your team trailing by one-run.

The Cardinals managed to muster there two-runs of offense from an RBI single from Rafael Furcal that drove in Skip Schumaker--and on a fielders choice that scored Matt Carpenter off of the bat of Daniel Descalso--and even though the team only scored two runs, they ended with eleven hits total. (but thats what happens when you strand thirteen total base-runners).

The save was rewarded to Axford, which was his fifth of the season. Despite the two base-runners reaching, and the drama that St. Louis delivered in the bottom half of the ninth, it still wasn't pretty.

St. Louis falls to 14-8 overall on the season, and has it's lead in the division over Milwaukee fall to now four games. The Cardinals will take tomorrow off before opening up a three game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates starting on Tuesday night inside Busch Stadium.