St. Louis Cardinals overwhelm the Milwaukee Brewers in three-game series
The St. Louis Cardinals seemed to have an unbreakable edge on the Milwaukee Brewers when the three-game series kicked off on September 5 at the home ground. Without getting much of a challenge to their victory, the Cardinals edged past the Brewers 2-1 in
the series.
The first game was played at Busch Stadium on Monday, September 5. St. Louis Cardinals could do little to get hold of the Brewers as the latter won the game by 4-1. This was the fourth straight win for the Brewers.
All the credit went to Randy Wolf. The Brewers’ starter allowed only a run in the eighth inning that he pitched to win the game for the team. All the same, much was the contribution of John Axford as well who pitched his 41st save in the 43 games
that he has played as the saver.
This was highly acknowledged by the Cardinals themselves. "This is baseball, you can't figure it out," St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols said. "You think we're not trying? It is what it is. They're playing well. Give the credit to those guys."
However, the Cardinals came back with characteristic fashion in the second game with a 4-2 win on September 6. Thanks to Kyle Lohse who went for six scoreless innings, both Matt Holliday and Jon Jay played their part in the Cardinals victory to level the
series 1-1.
It was Lohse’s performance that enabled the team to score the victory. "I don't think he enjoyed it and was upset because he got bumped," manager La Russa said. "But the difficulty today was that he was pitching against a good team and he did great."
The win also put a stop the winning spree of the Milwaukee Brewers and proved once again that it was the Cardinals who could make things difficult for them. In front of over 35,000 spectators, the Cardinals made it seem a tough contest for winning the series
as a whole.
With the series now standing at 1-1, the last game at Busch Stadium was all open for any team which could maintain their nerves and deal a significant blow to the other. It was the Cardinals which threw the Brewers in jitters.
The last game was a now-or-never encounter for the Cardinals. Even though they reeled behind with 76 wins compared to that of the Milwaukee Brewers which had won 85 of their games back then, the Cardinals won the game 2-0 to win the series 2-1.
Were it not for Chris Carpenter, the win would be a distant dream for the Cardinals. Carpenter pitched into the ninth inning, a complete shutout (14th of his career) to win the game for the team. He threw amazing pitches and completely restricted
the Brewers from scoring any runs.
The victory was indeed nice for the team with the only home-run that came off Rafael Furcal’s bat against the straining Milwaukee Brewers. The Cardinals managed to put in a tremendous effort during the series and contain the Brewers’ struggling offence.
St. Louis’ pitching was exceptional as they restricted the Brewer’s batting from getting too many hits. The Brewers will be looking to improve their performance and become more competitive offensively before the end of the regular season.
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