By MATT PIKE
The St. Louis Cardinals dropped both games of a day-night doubleheader to the NL Central rival Milwaukee Brewers at Busch Stadium, losing the opener 4-3, and the nightcap 10-2.
St. Louis held the lead briefly in the opener after Jordan Walker hit his 21st home run of the season, a two run shot that scored JJ Wetherholt after the rookie led off the game being hit by a pitch. The Brewers tied things up in the third inning though on an RBI double by Joey Ortiz driving in Cooper Pratt, and Ortiz scoring on an RBI single by Christian Yelich.
In the bottom half of the inning Iván Herrera's 11th home run of the season gave St. Louis the lead back, and the Cardinals held the 3-2 lead until the sixth inning when Garrett Mitchell's RBI single drove in Jake Bauers to tie the game. In the seventh, Milwaukee took the lead for good, an RBI double from Yelich scoring Pratt for the 4-3 lead.
Herrera was 2-for-4 with a home run and an RBI in the opener at the plate. Walker was 1-for-4 with the home run and two RBI's. Lars Nootbaar was 1-for-3 with a double. Ryne Stanek took the loss, without recording an out leaving the game with an injury, walking one and giving up one hit.
In the nightcap of the doubleheader, the Brewers took a 3-0 lead through the first five innings, scoring first in the third inning on a groundout by Yelich, with Pratt scoring, and adding two more runs in the fifth when recently called up rookie Luis Lara singled, for his first major league hit, and got his first major league RBI's driving in Gary Sánchez and Pratt.
St. Louis cut into the lead in the sixth inning scoring their two runs, their third home run of the day overall as Nelson Velázquez hit a two run home run, scoring Walker, to make it 3-2. In the seventh inning though, Milwaukee scored their final seven runs of the game, starting the inning with a solo home run by Ortiz. With one out, a double by Brice Turang extended the lead, driving in Lara, to put the Brewers up 5-2.
A two RBI single by Sánchez with the bases loaded continued the scoring, bringing home Turang and Andrew Vaughn, and another RBI single from Jackson Chourio scored Mitchell. Trailing 8-2, the Cardinals brought on reliever Gordon Graceffo and Pratt greeted him by clearing the bases with a two RBI double, driving in Sánchez and Chourio for the final runs of the game.
Velázquez was 1-for-4 with the home run and two RBI's. Walker had two of St. Louis's four hits, going 2-for-4 with a run scored. José Fermín had the only other hit for the Cardinals in the second game. On the mound, Hunter Dobbins took the loss, falling to 1-1 on the season, giving up three runs on four hits in five innings pitched with four strikeouts and three walks.
St. Louis and Milwaukee continue tomorrow with game four of the five game series. Michael McGreevy (3-7, 3.12 ERA, 60K's) will start for the Cardinals against Kyle Harrison (8-1, 2.82 ERA, 99K's) for the Brewers. First pitch is at 6:45pm, coverage beginning at 6:35 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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