Brewers avoid no-hitter, but are shutout by Cardinals 3-0

The Milwaukee Brewers were nearly no-hit and failed to score a run in the series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals.

St. Louis Cardinals starter Daniel Hudson kept the Brewers offense quiet, only allowing four walks in his 6.2 innings and striking out seven. Hudson was lifted after 111 dominant pitches. Giovanny Gallegos replaced him and carried the no hitter to 8.2 innings.

With four outs remaining, Yasmani Grandal stepped to the plate. He broke up the no hitter with his 20th double of the season. Of course, Milwaukee failed to drive him in. Andrew Miller limited the Brewers to a walk but nailed down the two inning save.

In total, the Crew was limited to six base runners. Christian Yelich, unsurprisingly, was the offensive “standout.” He reached base on three walks.

While the offense was miserable, the pitching was actually good. After 17 days on the injured list, Zach Davies was solid in his return to the mound. Davies kept the Cardinals off the board for the first four innings. The Cards offense finally got to him in the fifth, when Kolten Wong drove in a run on a force out and Dexter Fowler singled him in. Davies was removed after just 75 pitches.

The only other run came with St. Louis-native Devin Williams on the mound. Paul DeJong rained on his home-town debut with a solo homer in the sixth inning with two outs. Williams pitched a clean outing in the seventh, making the homer his loan blemish.

The loss pushes the Crew to three games back of the St. Louis Cadinals in the NL Central. Milwaukee is 2.5 games back of the Wild Card,

Milwaukee will try to get the bats going tomorrow in game two of the series. Gio Gonzalez (2-1, 3.81 ERA) goes against Michael Wacha (6-6, 5.44 ERA).