With less than 10 games to go in the regular season, the St. Louis Cardinals entered Friday night’s match up with the Milwaukee Brewers four games ahead of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and on a five game winning streak during their current home-stand.
The starters for the evening’s game were Carlos Martinez (14-7, 3.01) and Ariel Peña (2-0, 3.50).
However, Martinez’s start would be cut really short, as in the top of the first inning, he began to experience shoulder tightness only seven pitches into the game. Mike Matheny and the training staff headed out to the mound to check on their young pitcher. It was determined best to take him out of the game, and they brought in Tyler Lyons to pitch.
And later on, it was discovered Martinez suffered a shoulder strain, and he will be shut down for the remainder of the season.
But the game went on, and the Cardinals were able to score first when Matt Carpenter hit an RBI single in the bottom of the third that scored Tony Cruz, to make it 1-0. Milwaukee responded in the following inning with a run of their own when Logan Schafer scored on a wild pitch thrown by Lyons.
St. Louis picked up two more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
It began with a walk issued to Jason Heyward, who later advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Jhonny Peralta stepped up to the plate and hit a single, to put two runners on with no one out. Stephen Piscotty then hit an RBI single, to break the tie once again, making it 2-1 Cardinals. Later in the same inning, Cruz hit a sacrifice fly that scored Peralta to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead over the Brewers.
But Milwaukee proceeded to score three unanswered runs throughout the remainder of the game.
The first one came when, with Carlos Villanueva on the mound, Jonathan Lucroy hit a single that scored Schafer. As for Lyons, his final line for the night was: 3.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 Ks. Meanwhile, with the score now 3-2, the game headed to the top of the seventh. With help from an error committed by Greg Garcia, Domingo Santana scored Jean Segura to tie up the game.
And lastly, with it still a tied game in the ninth inning, Khris Davis hit a solo home run with Trevor Rosenthal on the mound to break the tie and give the Brewers the 4-3 win. St. Louis dropped to 97-57 in the loss, and their five game winning streak was snapped.
On Saturday, Jaime Garcia will start for St. Louis, as the October postseason draws closer with each passing day.
(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
