MILWAUKEE – Back at the ballpark that gave propulsion to a historic streak, the Cardinals could not muster that same magic to keep last year’s one lingering winning run going.
The Cardinals brought an 11-game winning streak on the road into their first road game of the 2022 regular season and saw it stop before it restarted. Milwaukee right-hander Brandon Woodruff rebounded from an awful start at Wrigley Field to welcome the Brewers faithful back to American Family Field with five shutout innings in the team’s home opener. A crowd of 42,794 attended Milwaukee’s 5-1 victory Thursday evening with many of them tailgating in high winds before the game.
Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright and catcher Yadier Molina made their 306th start together at the same place where they had their 300th. That vaulted them into a tie for the third-most starts as a battery in major-league history, matching Red Faber and Ray Schalk of the Chicago White Sox. The usual success Wainwright has had against the Brewers at their ballpark did not match the moment. The right-hander allowed four runs on eight hits through 4 1/3 innings. He struck out seven but complicated his innings with two walks, and Milwaukee notched a run against him in each of the first three innings.
When last the Cardinals visited Milwaukee, they swept a four-game series on their way to last fall’s 17 consecutive wins. The Cardinals won their last 11 road games of the regular season and had a chance to tie the 1941 team’s streak with a win Thursday.
They trailed fast.
Former Cardinals leadoff hitter Kolten Wong stung the second pitch Wainwright threw for a triple that put Milwaukee’s first rally in motion.
Wainwright (1-1) retired the next two batters, including former MVP Christian Yelich, without Wong moving from third. But Andrew McCutchen, the long-time NL Central foe who has the most at-bats of any active National League hitters against Wainwright (64), struck a two-out single to bring home Wong with the game’s first run. Milwaukee scored at least a run off Wainwright in each of the first four innings and took a 4-0 lead before Wainwright had a scoreless inning.
Milwaukee catcher Omar Narvaez hit a solo homer in the second and followed with an RBI single in the Brewers’ two-run third inning to widen the lead.
If there was an inning when Woodruff was vulnerable it was the one he left fuming at home-plate umpire Lance Barrett. In the third inning, the Cardinals got back-to-back singles off Woodruff to start the inning and put the tying run on base. In a retro move straight out of the old National League playbook, No. 9 hitter Edman dropped a bunt to put his teammates in scoring position. Then things got fortunate before they got frustrating for Woodruff.
With two runners on base he ran a fastball in on leadoff hitter Dylan Carlson. The ball struck the knob of Carlson’s bat and became a meek groundout that did not advance either runner.
Woodruff had his way out of the inning.
What followed was a series of pitches that the right-hander felt he had a strikeout to end the inning. Paul Goldschmidt grinded through an at-bat to a full-count, taking two pitches that Woodruff thought were strikes to end the inning. Goldschmidt ultimately reached based with Narvaez’s mitt clipped Goldschmidt’s bat for a catcher’s interference. Instead of being out of the inning, Woodruff had the bases loaded and Tyler O’Neill at the plate. He was caught throwing at least a dozen more pitches as a result. O’Neill flew out to keep Woodruff’s shutout going but possibly lessen his start by a full inning.
Not that the Cardinals capitalized.
Edman’s home run in the eighth inning – his second homer of the season – was only the second hit the Cardinals got against the Brewers’ bullpen after it took over in the sixth.
Wainwright’s departure in the middle of the fifth inning allowed the last of the Cardinals’ pitchers to appear in a game. Drew VerHagen, who spent most of spring as a candidate for the fifth spot in the rotation, was the only pitcher on the active roster yet to appear on the mound. He took over the fifth, stranded his inherited runner, and pitched 2 2/3 solid innings. He allowed one hit and one walk while striking out three.
VerHagen’s appearance in a game left only position players Edmundo Sosa and Lars Nootbaar as players on the active roster yet to appear in a game this season.
