Brew defeat Cards, win sixth straight

From Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
Brewers 5, Cardinals 1
W: Wolf (9-8) L: Westbrook (9-6)

Randy Wolf dominated the Cardinals and pitched eight innings to give the Brewers their fifth straight road victory.

Once again Milwaukee got on the board first and continued to win when doing so. Corey Hart led off the game with a walk as Nyjer Morgan and Ryan Braun followed with back-to-back singles. Prince Fielder hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Hart. Casey McGehee walked and the Brewers seemed to be heading for a big inning when Yuniesky Betancourt unfortunately grounded into a double play to end the threat.

The Cardinals came right back with a run of their own when Albert Pujols scored Rafeal Furcal with a sacrifice fly of his very own. It was the only run Wolf surrendered the entire game. Randy only allowed five men to reach base in what was by far his best performance of the season. Although he only had one strikeout, there was great movement on the ball and he was constantly mixing his pitches to fool the St. Louis batters. Wolf's ERA is now lowered to 3.48 and he has been a solid number three for the Brewers impressive starting rotation this year.

Milwaukee took the lead again in the third when Braun scored from second off of Fielder's double. McGehee grounded out and Betancourt made up for his double play in the first when he singled home Prince.

The game did not conclude without some controversy. After Jerry Hairston's base hit, Josh Wilson hit a sacrifice bunt to move him over. Pitcher Marc Rzepczynski threw the ball off target and Pujols had to take his foot off the bag in order to catch the ball. Wilson seemed to get there at the same time Pujols attempted to step on first. The umpire called Wilson safe and Tony La Russa came flying out of the dugout to argue the call. La Russa was quickly ejected and the Brewers made him pay as Corey Hart added some insurance with a single that scored both Hairston and Wilson.

Although Wolf probably could have finished with a complete game, manager Ron Roenicke was not willing to take any chances as he sent in Francisco Rodriguez to pitch the ninth. K-Rod got the first two batters out, but ran into trouble when he allowed back-to-back singles. Rodriguez got Yadier Molina to ground out for the win.

The Brewers send Yovani Gallardo to the mound in the finale in an attempt to get their second straight road sweep.