Lynn Masters Brewers as Cards Take Series

It’s Sunday at the Masters and the Brewers saw a masterful performance from St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Lance Lynn in route to their series winning 9-3 victory over the Brewers on Easter Sunday.  Lynn allowed only one run on just two hits in his six and two-thirds of work to earn a victory in his first start this season.  St. Louis moved their record to 3-1 to open the season.

Randy Wolf didn’t have his best stuff (more on that later) as he gave up three runs in his five innings of work to take the loss.  He also allowed nine Cardinals hits as the Brewers fell to 1-2 on the young season.

The Brewers hitters just couldn’t solve Lynn and his slider/cutter today as Braun’s 1st inning hit was the only one he gave up until the 7th inning.  Unfortunately the Brewers couldn’t capitalize on the base runners in the 7th and any chance of a comeback was thought to be over as Milwaukee headed to their half of the 8th inning down 6-1.  

That’s when Norichika Aoki came to the plate and got his first ever MLB hit, a single to left field.  Alex Gonzalez followed that up with a double that plated Aoki to make it 6-2 with no outs and a runner on 2nd.  

But once again the Brewers bats couldn’t come up for them as they stranded Gonzalez on 2nd.  

The 9th inning was given to John Axford to get some work in and he started off with 2 straight strike out’s but he went full count on all four batters he faced and after back to back strike out’s it was back to back walks and he was pulled after going 27 pitches.  

Any chance of a Brewers comeback ended after that as Carlos Beltran belted a three run home run to put the Cardinals up 9-2 in the top of the 9th.  

Ryan Braun started with the Brewers first hit and he also had the Brewers final hit as he crushed a home run to the Brewers bullpen in left field to cut the lead to the final score of 9-3.

NOTES:

Starters:
MIL – Wolf: 5IP, 9H, 3R, 3ER, 1BB, 7K (108 pitches, 68 strikes)
STL – Lynn: 6.2IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 8K, 1HR (100, 69 strikes)

Brewers Highlights:
Ryan Braun – 2-4, 1HR (1), 1RBI
Corey Hart – 1-3, 1HR (3), 1RBI

Cardinals Highlights: 
Rafael Furcal: 3-5, 1RBI, 2R, .526 avg.
Matt Holliday: 2-4, 1RBI, 2R, 1BB
Carlos Beltran: 3-5, 1HR, 2RBI, 1R
Shane Robinson: 3-5, 1HR, 3RBI, 2R, 

Previous Game Reports for Series:
Yesterday
Friday 

Final Thoughts: 

– Ryan Braun is absolutely crushing the ball to start the season.  After his single to right in the 1st he hit two balls that most thought were out of the park and with good reason as they went a total of 795 feet, but both were caught on the warning track for outs.  If this pace keeps up he could be in for a big series at Wrigley starting tomorrow.  

– Randy Wolf just didn’t have command when he needed it and nothing illustrates that more than how bad he was against right-handed hitters – where he couldn’t spot the ball inside.  Don’t believe me?  Check out the graph here (negative numbers below = inside pitches):

– Every single Milwaukee pitcher (Wolf, Estrada, Dillard, Axford, Loe) gave up a run in the game with Wolf giving up the most at 3.  Estrada and Axford were responsible for 2 runs.  Loe and Dillard each had 1 run against them.

– The thorn in the side of the Brewers pitching staff known as David Freese finally feel back to earth as he went 1-for-5 and struck out three times. 

– Is it just me or is it becoming equally or more annoying to see all the Cardinals fans in the stands for our home games.  Come on Brewers fans!!  

Up Next: 
After dropping their season opening home series the Brewers travel down I-94 to take on the Cubs at Wrigley Field for a 4 game series that starts tomorrow night at 6:05pm Central and can be seen on ESPN or FSWisocnsin (check your local listings).