W: Yovani Gallardo (12-7)
L: Casey Coleman (1-2)
S: John Axford (21)
HR: Casey McGehee (21)
MVP: Yovani Gallardo (+.519)
LVP: Rickie Weeks (-.111)
Win Expectancy Graph
The Brewers scored! If someone told you last Thursday, one day after the Brewers torched Cardinals Rookie of the Year candidate Jaime Garcia for seven runs, that the biggest question coming into today's game was whether the Brewers could plate their first run of the series, you probably would have scoffed at them. One Carlos Zambrano and one Ryan Dempster start later, that question indeed faced Milwaukee hitters.
For the first four innings of today's game, Cubs rookie righthander Casey Coleman followed in the steps of his predecessors and held the Brewers offense scoreless. Brewers ace Yovani Gallardo kept pace with him and, as so often seems to happen, sparked a rally himself. He led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a double to the wall in right-center and later scored on Ryan Braun's bloop double down the right field line. The run ended a string of 22 scoreless innings for Brewers batters. That was it for either team until the eighth inning, when Casey McGehee smashed a home run off Cubs rookie Thomas Diamond into the Brewers' bullpen in left-center.
Gallardo struck out six batters while scattering four hits and three walks through his seven innings of work. Kameron Loe and John Axford combined to finish the shutout. It was the sixth shutout by Brewers pitchers this season.
The Brewers now head to Houston to play for third place.