Double plays haunt Brew in loss

From Thursday, August 11th, 2011
Cardinals 5, Brewers 2
W: Carpenter (8-8) L: Gallardo (13-8) SV: Salas (22)

Too many mistakes on the Brewers behalf led to a missed opportunity, a chance to sweep the Cardinals on their home turf.

Milwaukee continued their first inning dominance when Mark Kotsay and Prince Fielder each recorded RBIs to give the Brewers an early lead. Kotsay hit a line drive double to score Corey Hart from second and Fielder singled him home.

Yovani Gallardo was not at his best when the Brewers needed him to be. He allowed the Cardinals to come right back and tie the game in the bottom half of the first. Rafael Furcal led off with a solo homer to right field, his second since being traded to the Cardinals, ironically both of them have been against Milwaukee. Albert Pujols said before the game that he needed to do more in these games against the Brewers and made good on that statement when he went yard to left center.

In total Gallardo gave up five runs, four earned, on seven hits in five innings of work. It was a poor performance, one he has not had in quite some time. Milwaukee could have dealt a serious blow to their rival by putting them six games back, but now they are only four, with plenty of time to catch up.

Gallardo does not deserve total blame for the loss, considering the Brewers have overcome five runs on many occasions. The offense is equally responsible if not more so. They got the hits needed to win, in fact they had more men on base then the Cardinals did. It was the four double plays, three of them inning-ending, that haunted them and any chance of winning the game. Every time it looked as if the Brewers were about to get it going again, someone would hit into a double play and the threat was over.

The defense is also at fault for committing two errors that aided the Cardinals cause.

"I thought we played real well the last two days, but today was a little bit sloppy," said manager Ron Roenicke.

The Brewers went 5-1 on the road trip, which is exceptional considering their previous woes away from Miller Park. They now return home to face the struggling Pirates in hopes of padding their division lead.