Wednesday’s match report: Cardinals 10, Brewers 6 (10 innings)
By Rob Rains
It’s been a frustrating season for Nolan Arenado, but on Wednesday night he finally had a reason to smile.
Arenado’s Grand Slam in the 10th Inning broke a 6-6 tie and gave the Cardinals a walkoff victory over the Brewers at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals had sent the game into overtime with two runs in the ninth inning against Milwaukee’s closer Devin Williams, with both runs coming from walks with the bases full.
Masyn Winn was the automatic runner on second base at the start of the 10thth and he got to third base on Alec Burleson’s flyout. Willson Contreras was intentionally forced to walk and then Jose Fermin also managed a walk to load the bases.
Arenado then took advantage of a 1-2 pitch from Trevor Megill and blasted the ball into the left field seats to give the Cardinals their first extra-inning home win of the season. At Busch, they had gone 0-4 in extra innings.
The victory was celebrated in front of 29,580 spectators, the smallest crowd in the history of Busch Stadium 3 since it opened in 2006. The last time they drew fewer than 30,000 fans to a home game was 2005, the final season at Busch 2.
It was just the Cardinals’ second win in nine games against division-leading Brewers this season and their second in their last nine games, as they look to stay in the wild-card race.
This is how the game went on Wednesday evening:
On the plate: The first comeback of the night for the Cardinals came in the seventh inning when Luken Baker — called up from Memphis on Tuesday — hit a two-run pinch-hit home run to tie the game at 4-4… In the ninth inning, Contreras was hit by a pitch and Fermin hit a double to put runners on second and third base. Arenado retired before Lars Nootbaar walked to load the bases. Paul Goldschmidt retired, but then Matt Carpenter and Tommy Pham drew walks that tied the game.
On the hill: The Cardinals used seven pitchers in the game and combined for eight walks, five of which scored… Kyle Gibson allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings… The Brewers took a 4-2 lead in the seventh inning on a two-run single by Jackson Chourio off JoJo Romero and a 6-4 lead in the eighth inning on a two-run double by Joey Ortiz off Andrew Kittredge… Ryan Helsley prevented the Brewers from scoring in the 10th inning.thscored two strikeouts and left the lead runner on third base.
Important statistics: Arenado had not had a hit in seven at-bats with the bases loaded this season, an area where the Cardinals have struggled overall, posting a team average of .174 and 15 hits in 86 at-bats.
Noteworthy: The Cardinals sent Nolan Gorman to Memphis before the game. Gorman has not hit a home run since July 22, and in 14 games since then, including 12 starts, has hit 8 of 44 home runs with two doubles and no RBI. He struck out in 16 of those at-bats. This was a disappointing season for Gorman, who only managed a .203 batting average with 151 strikeouts in 365 at-bats this year. The Cardinals, in their third year, really struggled with runners in scoring position, he managed a .159 batting average and struck out 37 times in 82 at-bats… Ferman was recalled from Memphis to take Gorman’s place on the roster… In another promotion, first baseman Chandler Redmond transferred from Springfield to Memphis. Redmond broke the Springfield franchise home run record earlier this season … Steven Matz made what was expected to be his final rehab appearance Wednesday night in Memphis, throwing 85 pitches in five innings and allowing four runs.
Outlook: Miles Mikolas will kick off the series finale on Thursday at 1:15 p.m.
Follow Rob Rains on Twitter @RobRains
