Cardinals’ rally falls short vs. Brewers

Tonight was not a good night for Cardinals nation. As I mentioned earlier, Carlos Martinez left the game with a shoulder issue, after only facing one batter in the first inning.

So, how did the rest of the night go?

After Martinez’s exit, Tyler Lyons came in and pitched 3 2/3 innings of relief allowing one run on two hits, while striking out five. A solid relief outing for the left-hander who is gunning for a spot on the postseason roster. 

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After allowing Milwaukee to tie the game in the fourth, the Cardinals were able to take the lead back as Stephen Piscotty continued his hot streak and drove in Heyward to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead, Tony Cruz would add a run via a sacrifice fly later in the inning bringing the lead up to 3-1.

Unfortunately, this was the extent of the Cardinals’ offensive output on the night. As the Brewers chipped away at the small lead and eventually took the lead in the top of the ninth on a Khris Davis home run off of Trevor Rosenthal. Seems to me Mr. Davis is starting to become quite the Cardinal killer this season, as that was his fourth home run of the season against the Cardinals and his first at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals had their chances in this game before and after relinquishing the lead. They had the first two reach base in the 8th inning when Jhonny Peralta struck out with the runners going and Peter Bourjos was tagged out at third base, leaving Heyward at second base with two outs and Piscotty at the plate. Piscotty was unable to relive his performance from last night and he popped out to end the inning.

The next opportunity came when Greg Garcia reached on a single to start the ninth. After a sacrifice from Jon Jay, Garcia was left standing at second base when Francisco Rodriguez struck out Randal Grichuk and Matt Carpenter to end the game.

The other not so great news of the day, was that the Pittsburgh Pirates were able to beat the Chicago Cubs earlier today. This brings the Cardinals’ division lead down to three games with eight games remaining. Also, due to the loss and Pirates’ win, the Cardinals were unable to gain any ground on the magic number to clinch the division which remains at six.

Hopefully, tomorrow brings about a better result and good news on the Martinez front. Tomorrow’s matchup features LHP Jaime Garcia (9-5, 2.45 ERA) vs. RHP Tyler Wagner (0-0 12.27 ERA).