Matt Carpenter had four hits and scored three times, Carlos Martinez pitched eight innings and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-0, on Mondayer Park afternoon at Miller Park.
Advertisement
Garcia (4-4, 3.47 ERA) entered Friday’s game against Washington coming off a pair of ineffective starts in which he allowed 15 hits and eight runs in 7 1/3 innings.
The Cardinals scored only in the ninth off closer Jeremy Jeffress when Brandon Moss hit his 10th homer of the season and, more to the point, the club’s 10th pinch homer, tying the club record set in 1998.
Jedd Gyorko added a three-run home run, and the Cardinals finished with 14 hits for their fourth win in five meetings this season against Milwaukee (23-29) and fifth straight victory at Miller Park. For the day, Garcia surrendered just those two runs over five innings, throwing 82 pitches, 46 for strikes.
Pitching had been a trouble spot for the St. Louis Cardinals, but the rotation is starting to find a groove as the team continues a three-game series against the host Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night.
He has rebounded after a tough April, when he went 0-3 with an 8.78 ERA in three starts.
Other than the one at-bat, there wasn’t a whole lot of encouragement the Cardinals could take from Wednesday, but they did get another decent outing from a starting pitcher. Joe Blanton (3-2) struck out three in two ideal innings before Adam Liberatore struck out one in a flawless ninth as the Dodgers snapped the Cubs’ six-game winning streak. “He got some bad food last night, or something zapped him”, manager Mike Matheny said. He even scored from second in the seventh after catcher Jonathan Lucroy lost track of a wild pitch by Jhan Marinez that trickled to the backstop.
“They were kind of “woulda-coulda-shoulda” plays but certainly not routine plays”, manager Craig Counsell said. He struck out two and walked two as his record over his last eight starts against St. Louis dipped to 0-7. Davies (3-3) only allowed three hits and retired 13 in a row.
“Just something that caught us off guard”, Wong said. Milwaukee had three players start rehab assignments Tuesday.
“I started the game the way I never want to start it”, Garcia said.
The Cardinals worked Wily Peralta’s pitch count to 97 through five innings, sending him to the showers early.
Brewers: LF Ryan Braun (sore neck) missed a second straight game.
For this young Brewers team, an incredibly stringent test begins in Philadelphia with a four-game series with the Phillies.
Advertisement
For eight innings, the St. Louis Cardinals flailed at an assortment of 89 miles per hour fastballs and 78 miles per hour changeups from a pitcher, Zach Davies, who woke up that morning with a 6.05 ERA.
