The Brewers had a rough series this week in Texas, when they tried and failed three times to become the first team in the league to pick up their 90th win. But, back at home, they had no trouble doing so tonight, as Quinn Priester’s remarkable winning streak continued and the Brewers nickeled and dimed their way to a healthy lead before Christian Yelich added a two-run exclamation point.
Priester got the first out of the game when Brendan Donovan flew out to left fielder Isaac Collins. Iván
Herrera worked back from an 0-2 count to single to right on a 3-2 pitch and became the game’s first baserunner, and Alec Burleson hit a ground ball that would’ve been an easy double play if the Brewers had been positioned differently. But it snuck through the infield for another single, and the Cardinals were in business with runners on first and third and one out. But the next batter, Milwaukee villain Willson Contreras, grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. Priester had allowed a couple of mediocre-contact singles, but no harm done.
In the bottom of the first, Cardinals starter Andre Pallante showed off his defining characteristic: a groundball rate that exceeds even Priester’s. Sal Frelick and Jackson Chourio both hit weak grounders to third baseman Nolan Gorman (who made two sketchy but ultimately successful throws), and Brice Turang made harder contact but still grounded out to second.
Priester started the second with another one of those ground balls, retiring Lars Nootbaar. Thomas Saggese was next and he had a good at-bat, laying off some close two-strike pitches and then hitting a hard line drive on a 2-2 pitch, but he hit it right at Chourio in center for the second out. Gorman then hit a fly ball to the fringe of the warning track in left for the third out, and Priester was through the second in order.
Pallante got three more groundouts in the second, from William Contreras, Christian Yelich, and Isaac Collins. Six up, six down for him. Priester started the third with a strikeout of the struggling Jordan Walker and got the second out on a fly ball from Jimmy Crooks. Donovan followed with a fly ball to deep left, but Collins caught it with a leap near the wall, and Priester had retired seven straight.
Jake Bauers became the first Brewer baserunner when he drew a walk to start the bottom of the third, and Caleb Durbin followed with a walk of his own, and Milwaukee had two on with nobody out. After a mound visit, Joey Ortiz dropped down a bunt, which Pallante fielded, but his throw to first pulled Contreras off the bag and the Brewers had the bases loaded with no outs for the top of the order.
Frelick hit a shot over third base on a 1-0 pitch that landed about a foot on the wrong side of the left-field line; but a few pitches later he drew a walk, too, and the Brewers had the first run of the game. Chourio, up next, hit a fly ball to medium right, and Durbin took off for home. On what was a sac fly for Chourio, chalk up a “sac run” for Durbin, who was hit in head by Walker’s throw from right field. The ball ricocheted, allowing not only Durbin but Ortiz to score, too, and Frelick ended up at third. Durbin appeared fine. Turang, up next, hit a ground ball to Contreras at first, and Contreras threw home to try to get Frelick, who was running, but Crooks couldn’t handle the throw and Frelick scored. A William Contreras double play ended the inning, but the Brewers picked up four runs, despite their only hit of the inning coming in the form of Ortiz’s bunt (which could easily have been ruled an error).
With one out in the top of the fourth, Burleson walked, and he advanced to second on a wild pitch. Willson Contreras followed by dumping a single into shallow right on a check swing; Burleson had to wait to see if Contreras’s cheap hit would be caught, so he was unable to score on the play. That proved fortunate, as Nootbaar struck out and Saggese flew out to Frelick in right on a broken-bat pop fly.
Yelich was out on a tapper in front of the plate to start the bottom of the fourth. Collins followed with a solid single up the middle, the first “real” hit of the game for the Brewers (after Ortiz’s bunt in the third), and Bauers continued his hot streak by lining a double into the left-field gap that scored Collins from first. Durbin followed with more solid contact but the BABIP gods were not in his favor: he hit a 102 mph line drive right at Saggese at short, who flipped to Donovan to double Bauers off at second. The inning was over, but the Brewers had increased their lead to five.
Gorman struck out to start the fifth, but Walker got some badly needed good luck and blooped a single to right for a one-out jam-shot single. But that was all for the Cardinals in the fifth, as Priester struck out Crooks and got Donovan to fly out to medium left.
After Pallante retired Ortiz and Frelick to start the bottom of the fifth, Chourio drew a two-out walk, which gave Turang an opportunity. Turang looped a single into right that sent Chourio to third, and William Contreras hit one pretty well on the first pitch he saw but he didn’t quite get all of it, and Nootbaar made the catch in front of the warning track in center for the third out.
A curveball got away from Priester and grazed Herrera to start the sixth. The next batter, Burleson, hit a high fly ball to deep center that nearly left the ballpark; Chourio appeared to be in position to catch up and reached up near the top of the wall to do so, but he misjudged the ball and it bounced off his glove and/or the top of the wall. Herrera scored easily and Burleson ended up at third with what was ruled a triple, though Chourio certainly could have caught it. Priester struck out Contreras for the first out, but that was where his day ended; he was lifted in favor of Aaron Ashby with the left-handed Nootbaar coming up. Ashby was unable to get Nootbaar, who hit a soft liner over the head of Ortiz for an RBI single that made it 5-2. But Saggese grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, and Milwaukee was out of the inning.
Priester’s day didn’t end in ideal fashion, but he was mostly good again today. He finished the game with two runs, five hits, and one walk allowed on five strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. The Brewers’ offense gave him enough run support that he left this one in a strong position to pick up his 12th straight winning decision, despite the late blemishes on his line.
Lefty John King replaced Pallante in the bottom of the sixth, and he started the inning by getting Yelich to ground out to second. Collins hit another single up the middle very much like the one he had in the fourth inning, and with a runner on and one out, Pat Murphy used one of his right-handed bench first basemen and sent Andrew Vaughn to the plate in place of Bauers. Collins was picked off (technically a caught stealing, as he took off for second too early and was caught by King), but Vaughn walked—though two of the balls against him could’ve been called strikes—to keep the inning going.
With Durbin coming up, Oli Marmol moved to Jorge Alcala, and Durbin greeted him by dropping a perfect bunt down for a hit, catching Gorman playing back at third. Ortiz, like Vaughn, also benefitted from a shrinking strike zone, and he also reached on a tapper in front of Gorman. That gave Frelick a two-out chance with the bases loaded, but he got a little chase happy and ultimately hit a soft liner to Donovan for the third out. It remained 5-2 as we headed to the seventh inning.
Ashby, who’d thrown only six pitches in the sixth, returned to the hill in the seventh. Gorman, the first batter, hit one hard but Frelick caught it in right. Walker, up next, smoked ground ball up the middle that Ortiz made a sensational play on, but his throw to first was high and Walker was safe when Vaughn had to take his foot off the jump to catch it. Crooks’ bat exploded on a ground ball and landed in traffic between first and second, and Ortiz fielded the ball and tagged Walker out for the second out. Donovan got jammed on a 3-2 pitch but blooped a single to left, and St. Louis brought the tying run to the plate in the shape of Herrera, who has been their best hitter this season. To make matters more difficult, Ashby spiked an 0-1 curveball which got away from William Contreras and allowed both runners to advance. The count went full before Ashby missed with a high fastball and loaded the bases. With the left-handed Burleson coming up, Murphy let Ashby stay in for one more batter, and it worked: Burleson grounded into a 6-4 fielder’s choice that ended the inning. A sigh of relief.
Chourio led off the bottom of the seventh with a groundball single to right in a full count. Turang hit into a fielder’s choice, a line drive that could’ve been a double play had it bounced or been caught on the fly, Saggese didn’t exactly know whether he should catch in the air or not and he was only able to get Chourio at second. Turang advanced on a passed ball—Crooks’ second miss of the inning, though the first happened with no one on base—but Alcala got the second out with a strikeout of Contreras. Yelich had a chance with Turang in scoring position and two outs, and he worked to a full count before blasting one to center field off the scoreboard for a two-run shot, his 28th. Collins flew out to end the inning, but Yelich’s homer had made it 7-2.
Blake Perkins replaced Collins defensively in the top of the eighth, moving Chourio over to left field, and Jared Koenig was on in relief of Ashby. Koenig walked Contreras on five pitches, though two of the pitches that were called balls looked like they should’ve been strikes at the bottom of the zone. After a first-pitch ball to Nootbaar, Chris Hook saw something and paid Koenig a visit on the mound; it did improve Koenig’s command, but Nootbaar hit a hard grounder to third. Durbin made a diving stop on the ball and kept it in the infield but had no chance at getting either runner.
Koenig got ahead of Saggese and struck him out when he couldn’t hold up on a back-foot curveball. After falling behind Gorman 2-0, Koenig came back and got him looking on a high sinker, which drew some ire from the Cardinal hitter. Walker was next, and Koenig struck him out on three pitches, and the two leadoff baserunners didn’t move beyond first and second.
After a Vaughn pop out to start the bottom of the eighth against new pitcher Chris Roycroft, Saggese robbed Durbin of a hit with a leaping catch on a soft liner. With two outs, Ortiz reached when he hit a routine groundball that went right through the wickets of Donovan at second. Frelick hit one through the middle of the infield for a hit that put runners on first and third with two outs for Chourio, as the Brewers tried to muster another two-out rally. Chourio poked one through the right side of the infield for a two-out RBI single that made it 8-2, and Donovan’s error had proven costly. Turang struck out to end the inning but the Brewers had another insurance run.
Abner Uribe had been warming, but with the lead up to six, Murphy instead opted for Rob Zastryzny. Pinch-hitter Yohel Pozo grounded out to third on Zastryzny’s first pitch, and Donovan struck out on four pitches for the second out. A first-pitch fastball got away from Zastryzny and hit Herrera on the shin to give the Cardinals a two-out baserunner, but Burleson hit a check-swing grounder back to Zastryzny for the last out. On their fourth attempt, the Brewers had their 90th win.
It was yet another win for Quinn Priester, who improved to 13-2 and extended his franchise-record “decision streak” to 12 straight wins. The Brewers made the most of what they had offensively tonight, with a bunch of infield hits and sneaky ground balls plus five walks and two nicely timed extra-base hits that put three runs on the board. Chourio, Collins, and Ortiz had two singles each, while Bauers continued his hot streak by going 1-for-1 with an RBI double and a walk and Yelich had the game’s only homer. Contreras was the only Brewer starter who failed to get in the hit column.
Milwaukee could clinch a postseason spot tonight, if both the Reds and Giants lose their late games (against the As and Dodgers, respectively). Regardless, they’ll try to keep it going tomorrow in a national TV game, when Jacob Misiorowski and Sonny Gray face off at 7:15 p.m. on Fox.
