This week’s battle of the top two teams in the National League Central has been a no-contest through two games.
The Milwaukee Brewers followed Monday’s 5-1 win with a 6-0 victory on Tuesday, extending their division lead to 3 1/2 games. The visiting St. Louis Cardinals will look to salvage a game in Wednesday’s series finale.
After winning nine of their first 14 games in May to reach a season-high nine games above .500, the Cardinals have lost five of their last six games, all against divisional opponents.
An offensive lapse has played a large role in that recent falloff. The Cardinals have scored two or fewer runs in four of their last six games.
“Not everyone’s in the same boat. Some guys are actually feeling really good about where they’re at and you continue to push them in that direction,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said of the offense. “Some guys (want extra) work. You’re just individualizing everything to make sure we’re moving forward.”
Milwaukee, conversely, has surged multiple games clear at the top of the division behind its stellar pitching staff, which is tied for third in the majors with a 3.19 ERA.
Aside from two speed bumps over the weekend against the Dodgers, the Brewers have allowed three or fewer runs in six straight games.
The Brewers haven’t named a starter for Wednesday’s series finale after scheduled starter Logan Henderson was placed on the 15-day injured list with a low back strain.
“Hopefully not (a long absence), but it warranted (a roster move because) it hadn’t calmed down,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of Henderson. “They’ve done the MRI and they don’t think anything is bulging or anything like that, so they feel confident they can get it to calm down.”
With that move and rookie right-hander Coleman Crow set to join the team and start Friday in Houston, that leaves Wednesday as a bullpen game for the Brewers.
However that is pieced together, Wednesday’s pitchers will have big shoes after Jacob Misiorowski and Kyle Harrison combined to allow one run on six hits over 11 innings in the first two starts of the series.
“It makes it super easy for us. They’re just always attacking the hitters and getting ahead,” Brewers shortstop David Hamilton said of the recent pitching performances. “It’s easy to play defense like that.”
St. Louis will start right-hander Dustin May (3-5, 5.00) on the mound Wednesday.
It’s been a season of runs for May in terms of his results. He started with back-to-back losses, followed with wins in three consecutive starts and now enters Wednesday looking for his first win since April 21, having lost his last three decisions.
That’s not reflective of his form of late, though. Last time out, he struck out a season-high seven for the second time in three starts, but ended a streak of seven straight starts with three earned runs or less allowed, surrendering four over 5 1/3 innings of a 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday.
“Predictable counts and just repeating too many predictable pitches,” May said of his start. “Not executing.”
May has faced the Brewers just once as an opener for the Dodgers in 2021, allowing a run on a hit with three strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings.
–Field Level Media
