Brewers come up short, 6-2, as Cardinals win 17th straight game

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers have already clinched the division title, and their NLDS matchup is already pretty much set in stone. The final week’s worth of regular season games are, in terms of the standings, meaningless for Milwaukee. The Brewers did have a chance, however, to end the St. Louis Cardinals’ long winning streak in the series opener between these two teams on Tuesday night, but as with each of the Cards past 17 opponents, they came up short.

Before the game, the Brewers scratched Willy Adames from the starting lineup after he dealt with some soreness to the quad which recently had him on the IL. The move was made out of an abundance of caution because of where the team is in the standings; manager Craig Counsell said that under normal circumstances, Adames would’ve played through the injury. Counsell also said that some of his initial out-getters would be up for shortened starts this week, and that wound up being true of Brandon Woodruff in game one of this series.

Both teams were scoreless through the first three innings, before the Brewers broke through against Adam Wainwright in the top of the fourth. Avisail Garcia led off the inning with a single, then after a fielder’s choice, Luis Urias launched his 22nd home run of the season out over the fence in left field. That gave the Brewers a 2-0 lead, but would also end up being the only runs the Brewers could muster in this game.

Leading off the bottom of the fourth, Dylan Carlson jacked a solo home run to bring it to 2-1. Harrison Bader and Paul DeJong followed with back to back singles, and a flyout by Andrew Knizer moved Bader up to third. He would score on a bunt by Waino, tying the game up at 2-2. Woodruff’s day ended after four traffic-filled innings, with two runs allowed on seven hits, no walks, and three strikeouts.

It was B-team relievers the rest of the way for Milwaukee, with Jandel Gustave getting the fifth and giving up two runs, though he was hurt by an error by Garcia in right field. Hoby Milner pitched two innings, struck out four, and gave up a pair of home runs; Daniel Norris finished things off with a clean, scoreless frame. Wainwright, on the other side, didn’t give up another hit after the fourth and worked through 6.0 innings with two runs allowed, then the Brewers would manage only two hits in the final three innings off a trio of STL relievers.

The game finished with a final score of 6-2, and the Cardinals officially clinched a playoff berth with their victory. Now both teams will look ahead to game two of the series on Wednesday night. It’s scheduled to be Adrian Houser versus Miles Mikolas, with first pitch set for 6:45 PM central.