A lot went right for the Cardinals on Friday against the Brewers. Granted, my expectations were low. The Brewers just destroyed the Cardinals in Milwaukee, they’ve already clinched their spot in the postseason, and the Cardinals came into tonight’s game five games under .500. But tonight, we got a treat.
Lars Nootbaar opened the scoring with an RBI single, but got caught in a rundown between first and second and was tagged out to end the inning. Jordan Walker grounded into a double play in the bottom of the second to score a run and make it 2-0.
The Brewers only tally came the following half-inning when Sal Frelick hit an absolute bomb off Sonny Gray, who was solid tonight. More on that in a minute. But the big blow came in the bottom of the fifth. The Cardinals had already chased Jacob Misiorowski after driving his pitch count up. Rob Zastryzny had created a mess for Grant Anderson to clean up, but the only cleaning that was done was by Nolan Arenado.
He cleared the bases with a huge double to continue his hot first week since returning from the injured list, and that put the ballgame out of reach. The Cardinals added two more runs after that to make it 7-1. That score held, and the Cardinals earned their 75th win of the year.
I hope everybody likes my pun there in the H2 heading. But in all seriousness, Gray was tremendous tonight. He was quick and efficient, and when he did get into trouble, he got out of it. In the end, he scattered nine hits and struck out seven batters over six innings of one-run ball.
Up until his start in Milwaukee last weekend, I was getting a little worried about Gray, as his two starts leading up to it were not great. But tonight, he played the role of the ace and helped the Cardinals play a little spoiler on the Brewers while they still fight to win the NL Central.
Given where the Cardinals are headed, I do have to wonder if that might be Gray’s last home start with the Cardinals. They’re going to rebuild, as we all know, and he may choose to waive his no-trade clause for the right team.
Another big takeaway from this game was the way Alec Burleson hit. He didn’t drive in any runs, but he still had a pretty solid game, picking up three hits.
If the Cardinals do trade guys this offseason, I hope like hell that they don’t trade Burleson. He has been one of the biggest bright spots of the past three years. He’s got the power to be a 20-home run hitter, and he just makes good contact. He’s a steady presence in the lineup and just gets the job done.
Tonight, he was a catalyst and helped the Cardinals bust out of their offensive funk, and it was good to see. This is somebody who the Cardinals can build around in the future, and I think he has more than earned the right to be a key building block of this club.
The Cardinals go for the series win tomorrow. First pitch is at 6:15.