What a series it’s been for Matt Carpenter.
In the first game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Carpenter notched four hits, two of which went for doubles, and scored three runs as the Cardinals shutout the Brewers 6-0. On Tuesday night, Carpenter once again had four hits, this time with two of them being triples, scoring four runs and driving in two runners, helping propel the Cardinals to a dominating 10-3 victory.
Carpenter wasn’t the only Matt, however, to continue a hot streak.
Veteran outfielder Matt Holliday notched three hits of his own for the second game in a row. His average improved from .227 to .264 over the past two games, as he recorded his 1000th career hit as a member of the Cardinals organization.
The win improves them to 30-10 over their last 40 games at Miller Park.
Entering the game, the Cardinals averaged 5.25 runs a game in the last four starts thrown by Mike Leake (4-4) after averaging just 3.7 runs over his first six outings with the team. Brewers starter Wily Peralta (3-7) needed 29 total pitches in just the first inning, but it wasn’t until the fifth inning that he was dealt major damage by one of the league’s top hitting teams.
He walked two batters and struck out two while dropping to 0-7 over his past eight starts against the Cardinals.
In the top of the eighth, Jedd Gyorko hit a three-run home run to make it an 8-2 Cardinals lead.
As for Leake, he kept the Brewers in lock-down mode all night long. His final line for the evening: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 83 pitches (52 of them being strikes). He finishes the month of May with a record of 4-1 and a 2.31 ERA. With successful outings by Seung-Hwan Oh, Kevin Siegrist, and Jonathan Broxton in the last three innings (one by each), the Brewers were unable to muster any sort of momentum, aside from an early Jonathan Lucroy home run (while Leake was still in the game).
The Cardinals improve to 28-25 with the win, and will look to sweep Milwaukee tomorrow as Jaime Garcia gets the start.
