Daily Rant: Cardinals drop series to Brewers, fall down the standings

The downside of being a writer is that sometimes life takes over. I just recently started a new job and I was working at 5 AM everyday this past week which really interfered with my ability to write the Daily Rants. As such, you may have noticed the last two days didn’t have recaps. I greatly apologize for it, but will make up for it today with a recap of the Brewers series as a whole. The major take away from this series is that the starting pitching is really starting to come into form as the Cardinals starters didn’t do anything to lose the games. Lance Lynn had the best performance, but Wainwright had another potential corner-turning outing. More details follow after the jump.

Box Scores

The Positives

• Allen Craig and David Freese had the best series offensively. Both hit home runs and drove in two runs a piece. Freese in particular was phenomenal, going 5-8 and reaching base five more times on walks.
• The starting pitching was top of the mark, as all three starters hurled quality starts. Lynn’s was most impressive as he struck out ten and only only allowed on run on six hits. Wainwright had one less strikeout, but only allowed four hits. He was abused by his fellow teammate’s defensive woes. Joe Kelly continued his quality start streak, but couldn’t get enough offense to back him up.
• The bullpen was fantastic. Jason Motte, Fernando Salas, Barrett Browning, and newcomer Trevor Rosenthal combined for five innings while only allowing one earned run.

Justin’s Jeers

• The offense struggled somewhat, hitting to the tune of a .264 average for the series. Situational hitting was the crutch again, as the Cardinals picked up 40 base runners between their hits and walks, but only scored eight runs. The two losses were determined by one run each, so even driving in four more runs would have resulted in a sweep.
• The injury bug struck again as Matt Holliday suffered a leg contusion after being struck by a pitch on Tuesday. He missed his start on Wednesday and it is not known if he will miss any more time.

Three Stars

Standings