W: Takashi Saito (1-2)
L: Matt Capps (2-4)
S: John Axford (21)
HR: Michael Cuddyer (11), Danny Valencia (9), Nyjer Morgan (3)
MVP: Morgan (.418)
LVP: Narveson (-.277)
You'll be mad if you got frustrated when the Brewers were down in the early innings and you turned this one off.
The Brewers were down 7-0 through four innings and managed to claw back, getting eleven hits and eight unanswered runs from the fifth inning on to take the lead 8-7 in the top of the ninth.
In the ninth, Betancourt, Kotsay and Lucroy singled to lead off the inning. Morgan hit a double off the wall and then Kottaras singled him in to take the lead.
John Axford struck out two in the bottom of the ninth to secure the win.
Nyjer Morgan celebrated his and Tony Plush's 31st birthday with just his seventh career home run in the sixth. He also added a triple in the eighth and a game-tying two-run double in the ninth. He was a single short of the cycle.
George Kottaras pinch hit in Braun's spot in the order and won the game with a run-scoring single.
The bad news is Ryan Braun left the game in the eighth inning after seeming to come up lame running one out to first. Adam McCalvy said it was a left calf strain. He did, however, extend his hitting streak to 22 games with a double in the fourth.
This one got ugly early as Chris Narveson gave up 13 hits and seven runs in the first four innings. He had a hard time with control and gave up a lot of hits on fastballs up in the zone.
Back-to-back home runs by Cuddyer and Valencia in the third opened the flood gates, and then in the fourth it all went to hell. Narveson got the first two outs of the inning and then gave up a double to Alexi Casilla and walked Joe Mauer.
A bouncing ball got past Yuniesky Betancourt and from there it was nine pitches, three hits and four runs making it 7-0 at the end of the fourth.
Narveson ended up leaving with two outs in the fifth having given up a career-high fourteen hits.
Jonathan Lucroy's defense was on display, as he threw out two runners (three for the series) and was involved in a botched double steal in which he tagged a guy out at third - the rare CS-2U.
The Cards lost, so the Brewers are back in a tie for first place.
(I'm only a little bitter I had to re-write this entire thing in the ninth inning)