The St. Louis Cardinals got a strong start from Kyle Leahy and the offense came through when it mattered as they beat their NL Central rival Brewers 6-3 Monday night at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals offense executed excellent situational hitting early as Masyn Winn walked in the bottom of the 2nd inning. After Nathan Church flied out and Pedro Pagés struck out, Victor Scott II singled advancing Winn to third base and then JJ Wetherholt came up clutch by lancing a single into right-center driving in Winn and giving St. Louis a 1-0 lead.
St. Louis would threaten (and follow thru on that threat) in the bottom of the 4th inning when Nathan Church ripped a double. Pedro Pagés walked and Victor Scott II sacrificed advancing both runners to second and third. Victor, by the way, had 2 hits in addition to his sacrifice bunt. A good night for VSII. The Milwaukee Brewers then made the fateful decision to intentionally walk JJ Wetherholt loading the bases for Ivan Herrera. He promptly unloaded them giving the Cardinals a 4-0 lead.
Kyle Leahy had nasty stuff Monday night (in a good way for the Cardinals) throwing 5 1/3 innings of shutout ball. Unfortunately, he would get into trouble in the top of the 6th inning walking Bauer then surrendering a one-out single to Frelick putting runners and first and third. Oli Marmol brought in George Soriano who gave up a single to Rengifo driving in a run attributed to Leahy making it 4-1 St. Louis. Fortunately, Soriano would get out of the inning with no further damage striking out Hamilton and getting Mitchell to fly out to left. Kyle Leahy’s final stat line was solid allowing only 6 hits, 1 earned run and 5 strikeouts with 2 walks over his 5 1/3 innings. George Soriano and JoJo Romero did a respectable job in relief navigating through singles and walks, but not allowing any further Brewers runs.
The Cardinals would fortunately not be content with their 3-run lead by adding to it in the bottom of the 7th inning. Jordan Walker walked, Nolan Gorman singled and then Masyn Winn came through with a sharp single into right-center scoring Walker, but Gorman was caught adventuring too far past second base which helped contribute to extinguishing the rally as Nathan Church popped out to short to end the inning, but the St. Louis 4-run lead was restored as it was 5-1 Cardinals.
Get this. Ryne Stanek through a 7-pitch top of the 8th inning shutting the Brewers down 1-2-3. That normally wouldn’t be news, but lately that’s a non-typical result. Ryne sure does have nasty stuff that makes him difficult to deal with when he’s on. This is the version of Stanek we’d like to see more often if the Cardinals are willing to accept requests.
The relentless 2026 St. Louis Cardinals showed up again Monday night as Victor Scott II ripped a double into left-center. He was then driven in by super-rookie JJ Wetherholt who had another multi-hit game giving St. Louis a comfortable 6-1 lead. I love watching this team. This is seriously fun.
Gordon Graceffo, who was kind enough to hang out on our podcast this week, was brought in to close out Milwaukee and unfortunately gave up a double to Jackson Churrio and then a 414 foot 2-run homer to Turang cutting into the Cardinals lead 6-3. After Contreras followed that with a screaming single to center, Oli Marmol reluctantly brought in Riley O’Brien to shut down the Brewers which he fortunately did. On his first pitch to Tyler Black, he got him to ground out in a force out to second base, but he got a slight knee in the back covering first barely missing a double play. Riley got Vaughn to fly out to Jordan Walker to close out the game and give the Cardinals the victory.
Congrats to Oli Marmol who tied Miller Huggins for 11th on the all-time St. Louis Cardinals manager win list with Monday night’s victory.
The Cardinals will try to pile on the Brewers Tuesday night as Andre Pallante will start game 2 against Milwaukee as Brandon Sproat will take the mound for the Brewers. First pitch scheduled for 6:45pm central time at Busch Stadium.
