5 pleasant surprises from Cardinals series win over Brewers

The Cardinals kicked off their homestand with a key series victory over the Brewers.

The resurgent Cardinals started the Brewers series with an 18-1 victory. The Cardinals lost on Tuesday 3-2 and won Wednesday 3-0.

After such a disappointing start to the season, the Cardinals' 18-1 win against the Brewers was terrific. Jack Flaherty's pitching was outstanding, and the line-up showed out.

Nolan Arenado started things in the first inning with a home run to score Lars Nootbaar and Nolan Gorman. In the second, Paul Goldschmidt doubled to center field, scoring Tommy Edman. In the sixth, Goldschmidt singled to second base, scoring Paul DeJong. Nolan Gorman then doubled to right field, scoring Edman. Arenado then hit a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Goldschmidt.

In the eighth inning, Edman homered to right field. The homer traveled 402 feet at 105.4 mph. Gorman hit a homer on a fly to right field, scoring Lars Nootbaar and Andrew Knizner. Alec Burleson singled to right field, scoring Brendan Donovan. Tommy Edman singled to score Paul DeJong.

With third baseman Mark Brosseau on to pitch the eighth inning for the Brewers, Andrew Knizner came to the plate with the bases loaded. Knizner launched a grand slam home run to cap off a fantastic game. The blast traveled 401 feet to left field at 110 mph. Burleson, Edman, and Nootbaar scored on the home run.

Jordan Montgomery had a rocky outing on Tuesday. He pitched 5.1 innings, giving up eight hits, one walk, and three runs, including home runs to Joey Wiemer and Brian Anderson. He did strike out seven batters. Jordan Hicks, Andre Pallante, and Drew VerHagen each pitched in relief.

The Cardinals had a good outing against Brewers ace Corbin Burnes. The details of the win will be discussed further on the following slides.

The Cardinals kick off a four-game set against the Dodgers on Thursday. With the team playing much better, the Cards will look to avenge a sweep at the hands of the Dodgers a couple of weeks ago.

Jack Flaherty

Monday night, Jack was back. Flaherty was precisely what the Cardinals have wanted him to be for the past couple of seasons while he's recovered from injury. He gives all the credit to his catcher, Willson Contreras. But the two came together to form quite the team. Flaherty had confidence in himself to execute his pitchers and had faith in Contreras to help him behind the plate. It's precisely what the team needed.

Flaherty is now 3-4 on the season. He pitched seven innings, giving up three hits and two walks while striking out ten batters. He induced 17 swings and misses. It was an excellent outing for the young man, who desperately needed a solid showing to prove he's on the comeback trail.

Flaherty got a sweet surprise after his performance. His mother greeted him at the dugout to congratulate her son on a job well done.

Nolan Arenado

Arenado appears to have finally shaken free from the rust holding him back to start the season.

Arenado completed a streak of five straight games with a home run and scored 1,000 career RBI. He's had quite the week.

Arenado started things on Monday with a three-run homer to left field, scoring Lars Nootbaar and Nolan Gorman. The home traveled 369 feet at 101.3 mph.

Arenado used the home run again on Tuesday to tie things up early. Arenado hit a homer on a fly to left field, traveling 394 feet at 103.8 mph.

Arenado couldn't continue the home run streak on Wednesday. He did, however, single on a grounder to third base, scoring Paul Goldschmidt. This was the 1,000 RBI of his career.

Nolan Gorman

Nolan Gorman knocked his tenth home run of the season during the eighth inning of Monday evening's game. Gorman just added to the remarkable season he has been having, as he seems to be accomplishing what fans have been anticipating, finally performing what fans have been expecting from him. Greatness.

Gorman's homer Monday traveled 375 feet at 101 mph. He did score Nootbaar and Knizner on the drive.

Gorman has also shown off some impressive skills at second base. Check out Gorman's above play from Wednesday, which kept the Brewers scoreless.

Paul DeJong

DeJong has been impressive since returning from the injured list to start the season. The start of his season was highly anticipated as fans were told about the hard work he put in over the offseason to improve his swing.

DeJong's swing is more simplified as he's removed his leg kick and replaced it with a concentration on generating power from his hands and the pitch's velocity.

DeJong hit his fifth home run of the season Wednesday. The fly to center field in Freese's Landing traveled 419 feet at 106.4 mph.

It's great to see him returning to the form he had in 2019. It will be exciting to see what he does this season.