Hunter Dobbins was entrusted with the starting duties of game 2 of the day/night doubleheader against the Milwaukee Brewers and did a great job of limiting their offense to minimal damage in the early innings. The St. Louis Cardinals offense did not make a significant appearance in the game and the 7th inning was a disaster – again.
The Brewers didn’t make a dent in Hunter Dobbins outing until Cooper Pratt tripled to lead off the top of the 3rd inning. He would score 2 batters later when Christian
Yelich grounded out to Masyn Winn giving Milwaukee a 1-0 lead.
More trouble would arrive in the top of the 5th inning as walks would come back to haunt Hunter Dobbins. He walked Sanchez to start the Brewers 5th. After Frelick flied out, Dobbins then walked Pratt. Ortiz singled to right to load the bases. Hunter was able to strike out Christian Yelich, but one of Milwaukee’s top prospects who was just called up to the majors Luis Lara smacked his first major league hit into right field after a diving JJ Wetherholt scoring 2 and increasing the Brewers lead to 3-0. Hunter Dobbins would complete 5 innings allowing 4 hits, 3 earned runs while striking out 4 and walking 3.
Jared Shuster, who was just called up today from Memphis, entered the game in the top of the 6th inning with one runner on. He walked Jake Bauers, the first batter he faced, to give the Brewers runners on first and second with no outs, but struck out Sanchez. Shuster was also able to coax a flyout to center from Jackson Chourio for the second out. He got out of the inning when Cooper Pratt grounded into a force out to end the Milwaukee 6th.
The Cardinals bats were extremely quiet for the first 5 innings with the exception of Jordan Walker. He had one of the only St. Louis hits in the early innings and hammered an 86 mph changeup for another single with two outs in the bottom of the 6th inning. He would cross home plate shortly after thanks to a jolt that Nelson Velázquez put into a 93 mph four-seam fastball from Brewers pitcher Gasser as it sailed into the plants above the left field wall reducing the Milwaukee lead to 3-2.
The Brewers would almost immediately get one of those runs back when Ortiz led off the top of the 7th with a no-doubt 415 foot home run off of Shuster to make it 4-2 Brewers. Milwaukee wasn’t done in the 7th, either. After Christian Yelich struck out, Luis Lara walked followed by a double by Turang which scored Lara easily as he is one of the fastest players on the Brewers roster upping their lead to 5-2. Can someone please put up a poster in the Cardinals bullpen that says WALKS=BAD? I wish I could say that the walks and scoring stopped, but that would be inaccurate. After Vaughan reached on an infield single that glanced off of JJ Wetherholt’s glove, Bauers (you guessed it) walked to load the bases bringing up Sanchez with just one out. He piled on the misery by smacking a single to left scoring 2 and increasing the Milwaukee bashing to 7-2. Chourio refused to show us mercy by singling to right-center scoring another one of the zillion Brewers baserunners making it 8-2. That finally inspired the Cardinals manager to remove Shuster and bring in Gordon Graceffo. Perhaps feeling peer pressure from his predecessors, Gordon gave up a double to Cooper Pratt which scored 2 more Brewers and brought out the boo birds in Busch Stadium as the score inflated to 10-2 Brewers.
To make matters worse, the St. Louis Cardinals lineup made Brewers starter Robert Gasser look like Sandy Koufax. Not trying to detract from his impressive outing, but other than Jordan Walker and Nelson Velázquez, the Cardinals just looked overmatched all night. He pitched an epic 7 2/3 innings and deserves big credit for his effort. The fact that there was one singular Cardinals highlight to share tonight tells you all that you need to know about how far St. Louis is behind the Milwaukee Brewers as a team. I’m confident that the organization led by new President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom have us headed in the right direction, but this series has been a reality check for the work that still has to be done.
The most effective reliever out of the Cardinals bullpen was position player Bryan Torres who pitched the final two innings of the game. My proof? He only walked one batter and allowed no runs.
The St. Louis Cardinals will play the 4th game of their 5-game series this week versus the Milwaukee Brewers Wednesday night hoping for better results than the first 3 games have provided them. Michael McGreevy will get the start for St. Louis while Milwaukee will give the ball to Kyle Harrison who’s 8-1 on the season with a 2.82 ERA. First pitch is scheduled for 6:45pm at Busch Stadium and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.
