Milwaukee bullpen can’t hold lead as Cardinals win in extras

Arenado’s walk-off grand slam puts exclamation point on back-and-forth game

Box Score

In a lengthy, back-and-forth game, the St. Louis Cardinals ultimately pulled out a come-from-behind victory in extra innings tonight over a Milwaukee Brewers team that ran out of gas at the back end of their bullpen. All three of the big stars of that bullpen—Bryan Hudson, Devin Williams, and Trevor Megill—gave up earned runs, and Tobias Myers, who has been so good for the Brewers, was far from sharp as he allowed two runs in four laborious innings. There were positives for the Brewers, too: the rookies, Jackson Chourio and Joey Ortiz, both had clutch hits, and Chourio put together his first four-hit game, but it wasn’t quite enough tonight.

The Brewers got a couple of one-out, first-inning baserunners off of St. Louis starter Kyle Gibson when Jackson Chourio hit an infield single and Garrett Mitchell walked, but William Contreras hit into his 17^th double play of the season.* William’s brother, Willson, knocked a two-out single against Myers in the bottom of the inning but that was all for the Cardinals, and we were off.

*An interesting sidenote: 17 GIDP would be tied for the AL lead with Aaron Judge and Yainer Diaz, but Manny Machado is WAY ahead in the National League, with 25, five more than anyone else.

Milwaukee hit into another double play in the second, when Rhys Hoskins erased a Tyler Black single. Nolan Arenado worked a walk after a 10-pitch at-bat to lead off the bottom of the second, and things got a little strange when Willy Adames had a bad flip to Brice Turang on a tough play up the middle on a Lars Nootbaar grounder. Arenado was originally called safe at second as Turang was falling off the base as he caught the ball, but Milwaukee challenged and Arenado was called out.

But Milwaukee’s defense would have more trouble before the inning ended: after Paul Goldschmidt struck out, Matt Carpenter hit a little grounder in front of the mound that should have ended the inning, but Myers threw the ball over Hoskins’ head at first base, which put runners on the corners, but Carpenter was thrown out trying (I guess?) to steal second base (he was out by a mile, and if it was a delayed double-steal, it didn’t work) and the inning ended with no score.

Sal Frelick led off the third inning with a funny little pop-up behind third base that dropped for a single, but guess what? Joey Ortiz, the next batter, hit into a double play, which was enough to get me to look up what the single-game record for double plays is. (The answer is seven: the San Francisco Giants grounded into seven on May 4, 1969; the Pittsburgh Pirates also hit into seven double plays on August 17, 2018, but only six of them were GIDP.)

Tommy Pham led off the bottom of the third with a solid single to left (which would have scored a run if it’d happened when he was at the plate at the end of the second!) and Masyn Winn followed that with a single of his own, but Myers stranded both runners by striking out Alec Burleson and Contreras and getting Brendan Donovan to fly out to deep center.

Gibson worked around a two-out single by the other Contreras in the top of the fourth, but it did put the Brewers off of their record-breaking GIDP pace. Myers continued to deal with traffic in the bottom of the fourth when Arenado doubled and Nootbaar singled to start the bottom of the inning. Myers struck out Goldschmidt and then walked Carpenter to load the bases. Pham worked to a full count and hit an RBI sac fly to right; Myers nearly got out of it with just the one run, but Winn knocked an RBI single to left on another full count which made it 2-0. Myers retired Burleson to end the inning, but he was up to 89 pitches through four innings and he was done for the night. Myers did not have his best stuff tonight and really had to work to get through his four innings, but things certainly could have been worse.

Looking for a response in the fifth, the Brewers got a one-out baserunner when Hoskins walked, and he went first-to-third on a single by Frelick (it was close!), setting up runners at the corners for Ortiz. Ortiz came through and hit one hard to right—it didn’t get down, which was tough luck, but it was plenty to score Hoskins from third. After four-and-a-half, it was 2-1 to the Cardinals.

Myers was replaced by Joe Ross in the bottom of the fifth. His first pitch was lined to third base but snagged by Ortiz, and Donovan hit another deep out to center. Arenado lined a single to center for his second hit (to go along with a walk), but Nootbaar grounded out to end the inning.

Chourio led off the top of the sixth with a triple (Pham maybe could have cut it off and held him to a double but it got by him), putting the Brewers in ideal position to tie the game. Garrett Mitchell followed—there was a long delay during his at-bat as Gibson was having trouble with the mound, and eventually Mitchell struck out. Chourio was still at third with just one out, though; Gibson pitched around Contreras for three pitches and, shockingly, threw him a 3-0 breaking ball in the zone, and Contreras pounded it past Arenado for an RBI double that tied the game. Gibson was pulled after that; the decision not to walk Contreras, especially when he was ahead 3-0, was vexing, especially so given that Gibson had already induced three double plays in the game.

Ryan Fernandez replaced Gibson and walked Adames (on a pitch that got by Ws. Contreras and allowed Wm. Contreras to advance to third), but the Brewers decided to get creative with their double plays and ended the inning on a strike-‘em-out, throw-‘em-out double play. It was an unfortunate missed opportunity for a struggling offense.

The Cards got another leadoff hit, this one a single from Goldschmidt, in the bottom of the sixth. He should have been retired on a double play on a ground ball from Carpenter, but some confusion about who should cover second base meant that Ortiz’s only play was at first. (It looked like it was Adames’ error, another point in a long recent run of questionable defense.) Ross, though, came back to strike out Pham and Winn and the inning was over.

Fernandez stayed on for the seventh, and the Brewers had a leadoff baserunner of their own when Hoskins drew his second walk. After a Frelick flyout, Ortiz walked as well, and Fernandez was replaced by JoJo Romero, whose first pitch to Turang hit the umpire and allowed both runners to advance. Turang, who was showing bunt when Hoskins and Ortiz were at first and second, bunted anyway, and ended up with an infield hit on a weird play that didn’t advance either runner. That brought up Chourio with the bases loaded, and he knocked a single into left that scored both Hoskins and Ortiz and gave Milwaukee a two-run lead.

Romero did get the Cardinals out of the inning without further damage, but now it was the struggling St. Louis offense that needed to play catch-up. They came through this time, though. Bryan Hudson was on in place of Ross, and he gave up a leadoff double to Burleson and a one-out two-run homer (just over the outstretched glove of Chourio) to pinch hitter Luken Baker (who is listed on Baseball Reference at 6-4, 285—big man). Hudson got out of it after that but we were headed to the eighth with a whole new ballgame.

Romero walked Adames to start the eighth and was replaced by Andrew Kittredge, a move which was countered when Pat Murphy pinch-hit Jake Bauers for Black; Bauers hit one pretty hard to center but it was caught. Hoskins, the next batter, battled for eight pitches and walked for the third time in the game. Frelick also battled, but he popped out on the eighth pitch of his at-bat. Ortiz was up next and he also worked to a full count, but he took advantage and put a double into the gap in left that scored both Adames and Hoskins and restored the Brewers’ two-run lead.

Joel Payamps, who has a 0.82 ERA in eleven innings since the All-Star break, was on for the eighth inning, and he had no trouble getting the first two batters, but that clean inning remained elusive as Payamps issued a two-out walk to Pham which was followed by a single by Winn. But Burleson flew out to left on the first pitch he saw, and the Brewers took their two-run lead to the ninth.

Chourio led off the ninth with his fourth hit, a sharp single into center. It was the first four-hit game of his career. Chourio stole second, Mitchell struck out, Contreras was intentionally walked, Adames struck out, and pinch-hitter Sánchez walked struck out looking on a ball that looked down. There were a couple of different pitchers in there, too. This was a long game!

It was indeed Devin Williams in the ninth for the Brewers despite his high-stress save in yesterday’s game. He got ahead of Contreras but hit him with a 1-2 change-up, and the Brewers would not get a 1-2-3 inning in this game. That was followed by a double from pinch hitter José Fermín, who came in with a .130/.216/.174 batting line in 51 plate appearances this season, and Williams found himself in a very similar situation to the one he was in last night.

This time it was Arenado at the plate with runners on second and third, and Williams struck him out for the first out. Nootbaar, who was intentionally walked in this situation yesterday, worked a walk on a 3-2 pitch that maybe should have been a strike based on how the rest of the game was called. But that brought up Goldschmidt again with the bases loaded, for the second straight night. Williams very nearly hit him with a 1-2 fastball, and Goldschmidt had a really nice take on a 2-2 changeup, but he watched another one on 3-2 that just (maybe) clipped the side of the zone. He was called out for the second out. But Williams walked Carpenter on four pitches, which made it a 6-5 game, and Williams was up to 27 pitches, 44 over two nights…and Murphy decided to roll with Williams.

It was the wrong decision. Williams threw four more balls to Pham, and the game was tied. Murphy made the switch to Trevor Megill, but it was at least one batter too late, and for good measure, Murphy got himself tossed during the commercial break. Megill was in a tough spot—his first appearance since being activated from the IL yesterday—but he came through, and got Winn to ground out to second. Williams blew the save, but they lived to fight another inning.

In the tie game, the Cardinals turned to their excellent closer, Ryan Helsley, for the 10th. It worked: Hoskins struck out, Frelick grounded out, and Ortiz struck out, and the Cardinals were in good shape going into the bottom of the inning. Megill, who threw only three pitches to end the ninth, stayed in for Milwaukee. Burleson made good contact on Megill’s first pitch; Chourio caught it, but it was a productive out, as ghost runner Winn moved to third. Willson Contreras was intentionally walked, which brought up Fermín, who was unintentionally walked. That loaded the bases with one out for Arenado, who got a 1-2 curveball that didn’t curve quite enough, and, well, he hit a walk-off grand slam. Drag.

This was an exciting game for a neutral fan, but a painful one for Brewer fans. There were positives: they showed some mettle to come back once and get a lead another time after having lost it. The offense in general was better than it has been over the past couple of weeks, and Chourio had one of his best games as a major leaguer. But Williams just didn’t have it, he probably should have been taken out a batter earlier, and it didn’t work out.

It happens. The Brewers still have an opportunity to win this series tomorrow at 1:15 p.m. when Freddy Peralta takes on Miles Mikolas.