On paper, the St. Louis Cardinals were overmatched in game 1 of a day/night doubleheader at Busch Stadium Tuesday. However, baseball games are played on fields and Jordan Walker proved that the unbeatable are really not invincible as he homered against Jacob Misiorowski giving the Cardinals an early lead over the Brewers in game 1 Tuesday afternoon. The problem would be the Brewers would still overtake the Cardinals in the late innings.
The Cardinals didn’t delay to jump on likely All-Star game starter Jacob Misiorowski. After he hit JJ Wetherholt with a pitch in the bottom of the 1st inning, two batters later Jordan Walker strolled to the plate and immediately destroyed a 95 mph cutter sending it 386 feet into the left field stands giving the Cardinals an unexpected 2-0 lead.
The St. Louis Cardinals start by committee worked fine – for 2 innings – as Matt Svanson covered the top of the 1st inning and new call-up from Memphis Bruce Zimmermann handled the middle innings. His second inning in relief would not go well as he walked Cooper Pratt to start the inning who then scored on a double by Ortiz. He scored next when Christian Yelich singled to center evening the game at 2-2. To his credit, that was Zimmermann’s only inning where he ran into trouble…until the 6th inning. More on that later.
The relentless Cardinals offense lived up to its reputation in the bottom of the 3rd inning as they again proved Jacob Misiorowski is at least partially human as Iván Herrera connected with a 102 mph four-seam fastball from the wonder kid and launched it 378 feet giving the Cardinals their lead back at 3-2.
Bruce Zimmermann faced a Milwaukee Brewers rally in the top of the 6th inning. Jake Bauers cracked a 2-out double followed by a single by Mitchell which scored Bauers at home on a close play that was held up by review tying the game at 3-3.
Ryne Stanek was given the reins for the top of the 7th inning with the task of keeping the Milwaukee Brewers right where they were. He did the thing that Bruce Zimmermann did in the top of the 3rd inning that got him into trouble as he walked Cooper Pratt to start the inning. Joey Ortiz then laid down a sacrifice bunt that led to 3 players lying on the field. Stanek hurt his right ankle and Pratt and Bryan Torres collided at first base as Pratt was called safe on the play. Fortunately, Pratt and Torres ended up being uninjured and able to continue. Stanek, on the other hand, had to leave the game complicating an already difficult Cardinals bullpen situation. JoJo Romero was tasked with tossing buckets of water on the 7th inning dumpster fire as he faced Christian Yelich who was 1-7 against JoJo Romero in the past. Unfortunately, he became 2-8 with his RBI double scoring Pratt giving the Brewers their first lead Tuesday at 4-3 with Milwaukee still having runners at 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. After JoJo struck out Turang, he intentionally walked William Contreras. The Brewers pinch-hit for Jake Bauers with Andrew Vaughan. Romero got him out on a nice play by JJ Wetherholt who was playing short in place of Masyn Winn for game 1 as he wanted to throw to third for the force out, but it was uncovered by Fermin so he made a throw across the diamond to get Vaughan out at first to end the top of the 7th.
After the Cardinals failed to do anything to Jacob Misiorowski’s pitches in the bottom of the 7th inning, it was Justin Bruihl’s turn in the top of the 8th inning as the St. Louis bullpen merry-go-round continued to spin. It was a bit of a surprise to see Justin in the game after he rolled his ankle during Monday night’s game. He was able to set down the Brewers 1-2-3 without issue to keep the Cardinals within striking distance.
Despite the two Cardinals home runs, Jacob Misiorowski proved why he is one of the elite National League arms. He gave the Brewers 7 full innings only allowing 3 hits while striking out 11 and walking nobody. It was a relief to see the Brewers bring in Aaron Ashby in the bottom of the 8th inning. JJ Wetherholt was able to beat out an infield single with two outs and then advanced to third on a single by Iván Herrera giving St. Louis runners at first and third. That brought up Alec Burleson with a chance to tie the game or more. Unfortunately, he grounded out to end the bottom of the 8th with the Cardinals still trailing 4-3.
Justin Bruihl would remain in the game to keep the Cardinals deficit at just 1. He would give up a leadoff single to Ortiz who advanced to second on a passed ball charged to Pedro Pagés. Bruihl was able to get Yelich to fly out to left and Chourio to ground out to Wetherholt at short which advanced Ortiz to third. After Turang walked, Bruihl was able to get out of the jam as Contreras grounded out to end the top of the 9th.
The Cardinals would face Brewers reliever Abner Uribe in the bottom of the 9th. Jordan Walker was first up in the Cardinals 9th. All Jordan could manage was a popup to third for the first out. Lars Nootbaar was next up and ran the count full before drawing a walk. Masyn Winn pinch-ran for Nootbaar as the potential tying run while the potential winning run came to the plate in the form of Bryan Torres. He struck out looking which left Nathan Church as the Cardinals last hope. He grounded out to end the game and give the Brewers the first game of the doubleheader.
The St. Louis Cardinals will play game 2 of their day/night doubleheader Tuesday night against the Milwaukee Brewers with Hunter Dobbins getting the start for the birds. The Brew Crew will assign night pitching duties to Robert Gasser who’s 1-3 with a 4.54 ERA. First pitch scheduled for 6:45pm central time with the game broadcast available again on Cardinals.tv.
