ST. LOUIS — While the potential for history swirls around the first-place Cardinals all week, the Milwaukee Brewers, the reigning division champs, arrived with their present at stake.
Their last stand as the only remaining challenger to the Cardinals for the National League Central crown begins with a two-game visit and an opener that, at first glance, left them vulnerable to falling nine games behind with 20 games to play. The Brewers opted to go with an opener Tuesday night at Busch Stadium and run a relay race of relievers to try and cover nine innings. The Cardinals had arguably their best starter of the second half set to start and a lineup designed as an answer to Brewers’ bullpen start.
It did not go as imagined.
