Standing on the opposite side of Busch Stadium’s field from the dugout he called home, with a three-game series ahead of him and a 10-game lead at his back, Kolten Wong talked Tuesday about the lessons he learned from being a Cardinal and contending into every fall.
And how his new team is eager to prove its place before summer ends.
“We’re ready to compete,” he said, “and put our stamp on things.”
They started by keeping the Cardinals blank.
Wong and the Milwaukee Brewers continued to zero in on the National League Central crown with a 2-0 victory against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The first of the 13 games remaining this season between the two division rivals offered the Cardinals their first chance to climb out of a deep, difficult hole, and it only further affirmed the Brewers’ hold. With the loss, the Cardinals slipped 11 games behind the Brewers. Milwaukee also opened an 8 ½-game lead on second-place Cincinnati.
The loss brought an end to the Cardinals' six-game winning streak. They lost for only the second time in 10 games.
The engine of the Brewers’ dominance in the division has been pitching, and Corbin Burnes gave the Cardinals an eyeful. The righthander held them hitless through five innings and scoreless through six. As quickly as his no-hit bid ended in the sixth inning so too did the Cardinals’ potential rally.
Adam Wainwright authored a quality start, but it took his sleight of hand to keep the Cardinals as close as they were throughout the game. Twice the Brewers left the bases loaded in the first four innings.
While what happened on the scoreboard will be reflected in the standings, it’s also how the game looked in the seats that will resonate with the club.
The Cardinals had St. Louis native and World Series icon David Freese present for his bobblehead night and a trip around the field in a truck – the club’s first chance to celebrate his career and the championship he helped win since his retirement after the 2019 season. Include that with the most significant series of the season thus far against the first-place Brewers, who stroll into town with at Kolten Wong leadoff and that same swagger the Cubs had years ago as they dethroned the Cardinals.
And yet that mix sold only 28,058 tickets to Tuesday night’s game.
There were acres of open seating in the upper deck, widespread rows of empty bleachers greeted Freese as he made the customary tour along the warning track. The Cardinals, now able to operate at full capacity for the past two months, remain top 10 in average attendance based on average ticket sales, but flagging attendance invites questions about the comfort of fans in crowds during an ongoing pandemic as well as the product on the field and if it meets the entertainment value fans expect.
On the Brewers side, Wong planned to put on a show.
He called Milwaukee’s pitching staff “mind-blowing, he discussed leveling the duel with Wainwright by getting a few hits against his former teammate, and he said when last they saw the Cardinals they were playing well and this time they’re on a six-game winning streak so it’s anot all that different.
“New Cardinals. New Brewers,” he said. “For seven years, no matter how far we were out, I knew there was an opportunity to come back. Scary situation if you know how good they can be. One thing I learned playing there is they are never out of it.”
Wong took the second pitch of the ballgame off his right leg and trotted to first base. He would eventually swing around third and be thrown out at the plate by Tyler O’Neill for the second out of the game. In the second, he got that knock against the Wainwright. He flipped a double down the left-field line and took third on an error. Wong drove home the first run of the game. In the fourth, he had another double off Wainwright.
When they faced each other earlier this year, Wong said Wainwright had a little chatter for him on the field, a little playful verbal jab.
“That’s between me and him,” Wong said. “Hoping I can get a knock off of him so I can get a little back.”
Wainwright found a way to sidestep and tiptoe around enough trouble to complete a quality start. Coming off his 88-pitch shutout in Pittsburgh, Wainwright needed a fourth of those pitches just to get through the first inning and stranded three runners. The Brewers loaded the bases again in the fourth inning, thanks in part to Wong’s second double, and Wainwright slipped free with three runners stranded against. The Brewers left nine runners on base through the first five innings, and the only inning Wainwright didn’t have to throw out of the stretch was in the sixth, his final inning. Wainwright threw 97 pitches, allowed nine hits, and still gave the Cardinals a quality start. He did all of it without a thread of support.
The Brewers had nine hits before Burnes allowed one.
When he did the Cardinals had their first real, tangible chance at tying the game – or more – and it was gone, poof, in the span of two pitches.
Tommy Edman, recast as leadoff hitter with Dylan Carlson on the injured list, snapped Burnes’ bid at a no-hitter with a one-out single in the sixth inning. Other pitchers have come closer than Burnes and still he appeared early to have the stuff of history. The Cardinals have not been no-hit in St. Louis since 1906 when Brooklyn’s Mal Eason did it. Only twice in the past 122 seasons have the Cardinals been no-hit in St. Louis. Edman’s single touched grass to keep Eason in Cardinals history, and Paul Goldschmidt followed with a single to reanimate the Cardinals present.
With the tying run on base and the middle order up the Cardinals had a chance to at least cleave the Brewers’ lead in half.
Nolan Arenado popped up on the next pitch.
Tyler O’Neill popped up on the pitch after that.
Burnes went from teetering out over the edge of trouble to finishing the inning with two outs on two pitches and that was the end of his evening. One of the National League’s contenders for the Cy Young Award, Burnes held the Cardinals scoreless through six innings on 89 pitches. He allowed the two singles in the sixth inning, walked two in the game, and struck out three. In his previous two starts this season against the Cardinals, he struck out 18 in 11 innings.
