Brewers fail to gain ground in the playoff race after failing often with men on base vs. Cardinals
ST. LOUIS – The Milwaukee Brewers had an opportunity to spoil a record-setting day for Adam Wainwright, Yadier Molina and the St. Louis Cardinals. Even more, they had a chance to make up critical ground in the wild card race.
Instead, they did neither.
The Brewers came up short time and time again with runners on base as the Cardinals won 4-1 on a night where Wainwright and Molina set the MLB record with their 325th start as a battery.
Milwaukee tallied 10 hits to go along with four walks but pushed across only one run on Tyrone Taylor’s second-inning sacrifice fly while stranding 12 runners on base.
BOX SCORE: Cardinals 4, Brewers 1
It was the second time this month that the Brewers have scored no more than one run while reaching base at least 13 times after going 317 consecutive games without doing so. The last time Milwaukee put at least 14 runners on without a single extra-base hit was June 1
Much of that traffic came against Wainwright, who allowed eight hits and two walks over five innings. But the veteran righthander wiggled out of each jam, twice stranding the bases loaded.
Nolan Arenado and Lars Nootbaar hit solo homers off Brewers starter Corbin Burnes, who went seven innings and allowed three runs but lacked his typical swing-and-miss stuff. Five of Burnes’ first seven outs came via the strikeout, but he failed to record a punchout after that over the last 18 hitters he faced.
Still, Burnes turned in an effort that gave the Brewers a chance to win. The offense simply couldn’t come through time and time again.
Albert Pujols added an insurance run for St. Louis with a two-out RBI double off reliever Brad Boxberger.
With the San Diego Padres losing earlier Wednesday, Milwaukee would have drawn within a game back of the third and final National League wild card – which is realistically two games because it doesn't hold the tiebreaker.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Brewers fail often with men on base during loss to Cardinals
