MILWAUKEE — The Cardinals had made it a lot easier on staff ace Jack Flaherty by scoring 54 runs for him while he was in the game during his first seven starts, six of which were victories. Flaherty saw the other side of this coin for the first time this season Thursday but his performance was unaffected by the fact the Cardinals scored only one run for him in his six innings.
Flaherty didn’t allow any runs to the Milwaukee Brewers and neither did the Cardinals’ bullpen as the Cardinals scored one run in the first and another in the ninth for a 2-0 victory in the series-clinching game of a three-game set, increasing the Cardinals’ lead over Milwaukee to three games in the National League Central Division.
The series was controlled by starting pitching. Milwaukee’s threesome of Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes worked 19 1/3 innings, giving up nine hits and two runs for an 0.91 ERA while striking out 27. Kwang Hyun Kim, John Gant and Flaherty allowed 12 hits and one earned run in 16 1/3 innings for an ERA of 0.55. Flaherty, the first six-game winner in the majors, is 7-0 after his four-hit, six-strikeout performance.
