Brewers’ bats silenced by Cardinals, 6-0

Box Score

The early six-game winning streak has come to an end. Their bats fell silent against the Cardinals tonight, while the Cardinals got to Eric Lauer quick. The end result was a 6-0 loss tonight in Milwaukee.

The Brewers were behind from the start tonight. Tommy Edman and Dylan Carlson led off with singles in the first, and Edman moved up to third on a flyout. Nolan Arenado brought in Edman on a sacrifice fly and the Brewers were behind 1-0. Willson Contreras singled after that to bring in Carlson and increase the lead to 2-0.

After a scoreless second, Lauer started out the third allowing a double to Paul Goldschmidt. Nolan Arenado followed that up with his first home run of the season (and 300th in his career) to up the deficit to 4-0. A walk to Tyler O’Neill and a home run by Jordan Walker increased that deficit to 6-0, where it remained for the rest of the night.

Eric Lauer was roughed up tonight, lasting just four innings while throwing 93 pitches. He allowed six earned runs, seven hits, three walks, two home runs, and four strikeouts. The bullpen came through tonight after Lauer’s exit. Gus Varland pitched two scoreless innings, Javy Guerra also had two scoreless innings, and Joel Payamps added a scoreless inning.

On offense, the team was limited to just five hits and three walks. The only player to hit for extra bases was Joey Wiemer, who hit a double in the third to extend his hitting streak to seven games. That is tied for the longest hitting streak to start a Brewers career with B.J. Surhoff. The Brewers did load the bases twice in the game, but they were left loaded both times. The team went 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base as a team.

After the game, Eric Lauer talked about his start and the concern that his fastball isn’t as fast as it had been last season:

The Brewers go for the series win tomorrow in the Easter Sunday rubber match against the Cardinals. Freddy Peralta takes on Jake Woodford of the Cardinals. First pitch is at 1:10 p.m.