Game 11 Recap vs Brewers
The most entertaining game of the season is officially in the books after a four hour, 11 inning battle.
The Cardinals comeback three different times to sink the Brewers 5-3 in a wild night from Busch Stadium.
A night where the first Cardinals hit would come in the 5th inning, ends with an exclamation point!
The night started with a web-gem type play by Harrison Bader in CF, robbing Sogard of a leadoff single.
Eric Thames stepped into the batters box next, only to greet Carlos with an absolute bomb to the RF seats giving the Crew an early 1-0 lead.
Carlos had his cutter working to perfection on LHH’s tonight, jamming and causing plenty of swings and misses. The best inning from Carlos came in the top of the 5th when he would strikeout the side, also the top of the order for the Brewers.
That same inning, Kolten Wong would break up Brent Suter’s no-hitter with a bunt single.
After that, the trouble started brewing for Suter.
Carlos Martínez would follow the Wong bunt single with a bloop single into shallow LF, dropping between Shaw and Sogard. Fowler would get HBP to load the bases for DeJong, who would strand the bases loaded, popping out to Sogard.
Carlos would return to the mound for the 6th inning, making an athletic play to turn a double play on the speedy, Jonathan Villar.
The bats would respond in the bottom half of the 6th. Starting with an excuse me swing for an infield single from Carpenter, followed by a line drive single up the middle from Ozuna. That would draw the end of the line for Brent Suter.
Oliver Drake would be called upon to face Harrison Bader with runners on first and second. It seemed as if Drake was rushed into the game and as a result, he walked Bader to load the bases for Muñoz.
Muñoz proceeded to get his first career MLB RBI, walking on the Drake pitch to tie the game 1-1.
Kolten Wong would try his best to give the Cardinals the late game lead but would smoke a ground ball to second base to ground into the 4-6-3 double-play. Wong drilled the pitch though, which had a 63% chance of being a hit.
Matheny would double-switch for Wong’s spot following the double-play, giving Jordan Hicks the opportunity to throw 2 innings. A rested Jordan Hicks, who recorded the first 3 outs in no time upon coming into two Carlos Martínez inherited runners. Hicks would get Domingo Santana to fly out to RF, Dexter Fowler, with the bases loaded to keep the game tied at 1.
Hicks would return for the 8th inning, giving up a leadoff single to Travis Shaw. Following a Villar fly out to LF, Hicks would walk Pérez to put runners on first and second. But that’s certainly no problem for Jordan Hicks, as he fanned Phillips and got Bandy to fly out with the leading runs on base.
Trevor Williams would come in the 8th for the Brewers to make his second appearance on the season. He would face Molina, Bader, & Muñoz, striking out the side with a breeze.
Bud Norris would get a chance to try his luck for a second night in a row, only to have his luck run out.
Norris would retire the first two Brewers batters (Arcia & Sogard) on a fly out and a groundout.
Next, Eric Thames would rope a double to the RF corner and later score on a Domingo Santana single to LF to give the Brewers a 2-1 lead.
Williams returned for the bottom of the 9th trying to close the door for a Brewers victory. Tommy Pham would work a leadoff, pinch-hit walk and would be moved to second base on a Greg Garcia sacrifice bunt.
Jacob Barnes would be Counsell’s next option. Barnes appeared to be rushed into this game without being allowed the proper warm-up time.
With Fowler batting, Barnes would throw a wild pitch, moving Pham up to third base. Fowler would again see a wild pitch, this time on ball 4, scoring Pham to tie the game 2-2.
Matheny would turn the ball over to Matt Bowman in the 10th inning for his seventh appearance early on in the season. Bowman would give up a leadoff infield single to pinch-hitter, Ryan Braun. Later in the inning with runners on first and second, Orlando Arcia would hit an RBI single up the middle to give the Brewers the 3-2 lead.
The Cardinals offense would respond, again. This time with 2 outs in the 10th inning off Brewers reliever, JJ Hoover.
A controversial call to bring the Cardinals to their last out wouldn’t stop them tonight.
Harrison Bader would hit a ball to RF and Domingo Santana would make the sliding catch, or would he? On a play that was reviewed in New York, and looked like an obvious single from Bader, the Cardinals wouldn’t get the benefit of the doubt.
They were down to their last out.
Yairo Muñoz would work the biggest walk of the season. Cafecíto would keep the line moving with a pinch-hit single to RF, moving Muñoz up to third base.
Greg Garcia, aka the double-switch of the game, would come through in the clutch. Getting a pitch to his liking and dropping into RF for an RBI base hit, tying the game 3-3.
Fun note: this was JJ Hoover’s fourth career blown save vs the Cardinals.
Dominic Leone would get the top of the 11th, striking out the first two he would face. (Thames & Santana)
JJ Hoover would remain in the game for Craig Counsell to start the bottom of the 11th. Paul DeJong would reach base in the unlikeliest of ways, an infield single. Which so happened to be the fourth infield hit for the Cardinals tonight.
Matt Carpenter got to feast next. On a 1-1 count, Carp would get a hanging curveball to his likings. Carp unloaded on the curve, sending it into the RF corner barely clearing the wall for a 2-run walkoff bomb for the Birds.
The Cardinals move to (1-1) on the year in extra inning affairs.
Coming Up Tomorrow
First pitch at 12:15pm c/t
Thanks for reading, cheers!
Stew // @StewStilez
I'm one of the "fell asleep in the bottom of the 10th" crew. I'd had a long day at work. Still, thumbs up! Ish!