Win: Mike Fiers (2-5)
Loss: Jaime Garcia (1-2)
Save: Francisco Rodriguez (9)
HR: None
Boxscore
Fangraphs Win Expectancy Graph
This isn't a game you wouldn't think the Brewers would win. If someone told you that one day after using basically their entire bullpen, the Brewers would go up against the Cardinals and Jaime Garcia and the final score would be 1-0, who would you expect to be on the winning end of that?
Not the Brewers, right? Not this year. Not facing the Cardinals, who I'm pretty sure the Brewers have never actually beaten in the past. Not a 1-0 close game. And in a close, low-scoring game, I don't know...it's just this feeling that that isn't the kind of game the Brewers would win.
But they did, this time. Mike Fiers had his start pushed up after the Brewers needed Matt Garza out of the bullpen Sunday and was almost exactly what they needed. Fiers pitched a full six innings for just the third time this year, allowing just four hits and two walks while striking out six. He allowed a couple baserunners in both the first and sixth innings, but escaped unscathed both times.
Meanwhile, the Brewers offense struck early against Jaime Garcia which is good because the rest of the night Garcia was even better than Fiers. Jean Segura led off with a single then moved to second two batters later on a grounder. With two outs, Carlos Gomez singled into left field to allow the speedy Segura to score the only run of the game. Over the next six innings, Garcia allowed just one more hit while picking up four total strikeouts.
There were a couple close calls late in the game, though. In the eighth inning, Jeremy Jeffress had runners at the corners and one out but struck out Jhonny Peralta and Yadier Molina to escape the jam. In the ninth, the Cardinals had two runners on and two outs when they almost picked Jason Heyward off of second base. A review said Heyward was safe, though it was a very close call. In the end, that wouldn't matter as Francisco Rodriguez got Kolten Wong to ground out to first.
The Cardinals have the best record in baseball, the Brewers the worst. But this time, Milwaukee got the better of St. Louis. They'll try to do the same two more times. First pitch tomorrow is 7:15 CT.