9th inning heroics
Ryan Braun hits a grand slam as the Brewers beat the Cardinals, 7-6.
ST. LOUIS – Throughout his career, Ryan Braun has shown an uncanny flair for the dramatic, particularly during playoff pushes in September.
On Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium, Braun did it again.
With the Milwaukee Brewers one strike away from what would have been a frustrating, costly defeat, Braun crushed a full-count grand slam with two down in the top of the ninth to stun the first-place St. Louis Cardinals by what became a 7-6 final score.
Braun’s clutch blow allowed the Brewers to stay one game behind the Chicago Cubs, who completed a threeday obliteration of Pittsburgh’s pitching staff, for the second wild-card spot in the National League. The Brewers have 13 games remaining, all against teams with losing records, while the Cardinals and Cubs still have seven meetings left
against each other.
The dramatic victory also pulled the Brewers within three games of St. Louis, keeping alive faint hopes of repeating as division champs. Three games is still daunting with two weeks remaining but far more doable than being five back.
The Brewers’ ninth-inning rally was put in motion when Cardinals reliever John Gant, subbing for ill Carlos Martinez, walked three hitters before departing with one out and a 4-3 lead. Lefty Tyler Webb took over and retired Mike Moustakas on a fly to shallow center, forcing Ben Gamel to hold at third base.
Rookie righty Junior Fernandez came on to face Braun, who fouled off a 3-2 changeup to stay alive before crushing a hanging slider out to left-center to make it 7-4, silencing the sellout crowd and shocking the Cardinals.
Braun’s home run was the 232nd for the Brewers this season, establishing a team record in a live-ball year in which many teams are doing so.
“There have been some memorable Ryan Braun home runs, at-bats, everything, but that’s right up there, there’s no question about it,” manager Craig Counsell said. “That was a great at-bat, preceded by a number of great at-bats. Just to stay in the moment there, stay calm, get a pitch to hit and do something with it, absolutely incredible.
“We had one bolt left and Ryan did something with it. There were a number of guys that did great things today and it adds up to a team win that’s pretty special.”
The second consecutive victory over the Cardinals capped a 6-1 trip that began with a four-game sweep in Miami, giving the Brewers a fighting chance to return to the playoffs.
“We had a really good trip,” Counsell said. “We closed ground on a sevengame road trip. That’s good work. That’s what we needed to do. We set ourselves up for a great two weeks.”
St. Louis didn’t go down without a fight.
Tommy Edman hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth off Brewers closer Josh Hader, the Cardinals’ fourth home run out of a total of five hits for the game.
The Brewers had a 2-1 lead in the seventh, courtesy of Cory Spangenberg’s two-run homer that inning, when reliever Ray Black was summoned. Acquired with lefty Drew Pomeranz from San Francisco in a July 31 trade, Black had not allowed a run over his last eight appearances or a base runner in his last six but didn’t have it on this day.
After a four-pitch walk to Marcell Ozuna, Paul DeJong lined the first pitch he saw from Black out to left for a tworun homer that put the Cardinals back on top. Later that inning, No. 8 hitter Harrison Bader ripped his second home run of the game, a no-doubter to left that put the Cardinals on top, 4-2.
The Brewers got one of those runs back in the eighth on an RBI single by Lorenzo Cain.
Cardinals starter Michael Wacha entered the game with an unbeaten record (6-0, 3.62 ERA in 14 games) and assured it would stay that way by pitching five scoreless innings, allowing five hits and no walks while striking out only one. Of the 15 outs he recorded, 10 came on groundballs.
The only run the Cardinals scored off Brewers starter Chase Anderson during his four innings of work came in the third inning when Bader led off with a home run to left-center on a 2-1 fastball. It also was St. Louis’ only hit off Anderson.
The last batter Anderson faced gave him the battle of the day. With a runner on second and two down in the fourth, Yadier Molina fouled off six two-strike pitches to stay alive before lining out to right on the 12th pitch.
A base-running mistake in the fifth prevented the Brewers from tying the game. Spangenberg led off with an infield hit and was running on a 1-1 pitch when Hernán Pérez flied out to right. Spangenberg, who lost sight of the ball initially, made it all the way to second base and a bit past before retreating and barely beating the throw from Dexter Fowler.
But the Cardinals appealed the play, saying Spangenberg did not re-tag second base on the way back and he was ruled out. That play loomed large when pinch-hitter Tyler Austin followed with a booming double off the wall in leftcenter, which would have scored Spangenberg from first base.
Spangenberg made up for that mistake in a big way in the seventh with a two-run, opposite-field homer to left off reliever Ryan Helsley that made it a 2-1 game. The Brewers had a chance for more runs when Pérez and pinch-hitter Keston Hiura followed with singles, but Trent Grisham fouled out and Yasmani Grandal took a called strike three.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Taking nothing for granted: Much has been made about the Brewers’ “easy” schedule over the final two weeks, facing four teams with losing records – San Diego and Pittsburgh at home; and Cincinnati and Colorado on the road. But the Brewers stumbled through a similar stretch in the middle of the season and cannot afford to take anything for granted. “I view it as (13) games. ‘Favorable’ is for everybody else to figure out,” Counsell said. We have a game in front of us. It’s hard to win ‘em. We have to do everything we can to win ‘em. It’s a challenge to win ‘em. Everything else is stuff that doesn’t do us any good.”
Hiura inches closer: Second baseman Keston Hiura took his first step toward returning to the lineup with a pinch-hit appearance Saturday night. His next step came with his single off the bench in the seventh inning. Hiura has been out of the lineup since straining his left hamstring at Wrigley Field on Aug. 30. “We’ve got to start getting him at-bats,” Counsell said. “He hasn’t seen live pitching in a couple of weeks. We’ve got to stack some at-bats underneath him, so when he’s healthy and can have four at-bats a night, he can hit the ground running.”
Pomeranz a strikeout sensation: When the Brewers acquired veteran lefty Drew Pomeranz from San Francisco on July 31, they noted his velocity and strikeout rate had increased since moving from starting to relieving. But Pomeranz has been a strikeout sensation with the Brewers, whiffing 32 batters in 191⁄3 innings. “It’s always a challenge to figure out which guys are going to benefit from the bullpen,” Counsell said. “With some guys, it’s the same. Then you see a guy like Drew and it’s like night and day, right? From Drew’s perspective, it’s just ‘I can let it fly.’ That’s what he’s doing.”
Woodruff to be slotted in: The usual starters were listed to pitch in the upcoming four-game series against San Diego at Miller Park but right-hander Brandon Woodruff could see action in one of those games for the first time since suffering a strained oblique in late July. “It just means we haven’t made any decisions,” Counsell said of listing the usual pitchers. “I’m not trying to be coy about it.” Woodruff is not stretched out, so whether he is the first pitcher in a game or enters from the bullpen, he won’t be ready to pitch many innings.
RECORD
This year: 80-69 Last year: 85-64
COMING UP
Monday: Padres at Brewers, 6:40 p.m. Milwaukee RHP Zach Davies (9-7, 3.77) vs. San Diego RHP Garrett Richards (season debut). TV: FS Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.