'We got to go through this': Brewers battle but fall short in opener?

ST. LOUIS -- Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick didn’t mince words when asked about the team’s recent struggles on Friday night.

“It stinks,” Frelick said. “I think we're playing a lot of close games that we're just, you know, not getting the extra hit, the extra bounce, stuff like that. So, I think we're playing good baseball. Guys are doing a great job on the mound for us, all the starters going out and giving us a chance. [We’re] just one hit, one bounce away, I think, from winning some games.”

That extra bounce proved once again to be elusive in a 3-2 loss to the Cardinals as Milwaukee lost its third straight game and fourth out of their last five.

“We didn't play bad,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “We had some opportunities. We didn't come through. But the guys battled, and we got to go through this. You know, that's all there is to it. We got to go through it.”

The Brewers had golden opportunities to flip the game in the seventh and eighth innings, but couldn’t get the timely hit.

A rare miscue by Gold Glove third baseman Nolan Arenado, who dropped a routine pop fly off of Frelick’s bat in foul territory, set up the Brewers in the seventh. Frelick promptly doubled, Rhys Hoskins singled and Isaac Collins walked to give Milwaukee the bases loaded with no outs.

But the Brewers could only muster one run to cut the deficit to 3-2 on a Jake Bauers groundout as Cardinals reliever Kyle Leahy limited the damage.

Arenado atoned for the error with a stellar play to help deny the Brewers in the eighth. With Jackson Chourio on third and William Contreras on first with one out, Arenado fielded a bouncer off Frelick’s bat. With all of his momentum carrying him towards second, Arenado whipped a perfect throw to home to just get Chourio at the plate.

“He's a great player,” Murphy said. “Nolan has been a great player for a while, and he comes through in big situations. That was an outstanding play.”

Frelick said he was running hard thinking Arenado was going to go to second to try and start a double play.

“I mean, just have to battle that at-bat as a whole and just, you know, do a better job of not having there be a chance to have a play at home,” Frelick said. “So, I mean, some of the guys said it was a great play, but at the same time, I’d have loved for that to sneak by, or just to hit it a little more up the middle.”

Meanwhile, the Cardinals made the most of their opportunities to scratch out a win.

Brendan Donovan’s aggressive baserunning in the fourth broke a scoreless tie, going first to third on an Arenado single and then forcing the issue by tagging up on a shallow fly ball to right. Donovan slid across safely as Chourio’s throw was up the first-base line.

St. Louis added to its lead in the fifth. Lars Nootbaar singled home Masyn Winn and then scored on a Donovan single to make it 3-0. The inning could have been worse for Milwaukee, but William Contreras made a strong tag on a throw up the third baseline to tag out his brother Willson, who was also trying to score on the Donovan hit.

Chad Patrick pitched 4 1/3 innings. He allowed two runs on four hits, struck out two and walked a pair.

“Cutter just wasn't moving like I wanted it early on,” Patrick said. “I feel like it got better towards the fourth and fifth.”

Christian Yelich continued his strong road trip with a two-hit game, including an RBI single that scored Chourio in the sixth. Yelich is hitting .333 (6-for-18) in his last five games and his average is up to .228 after a slow start.

Chourio also turned in a two-hit night, snapping a 2-for-13 skid from across his previous four games.

Murphy believes the team is showing positive signs of snapping out of the funk.

“I think there's reason to be excited about it, but we just, we got to go through skids like this, where things don't go our way or guys make great plays against us, or pitch great against us, that's going to be part of it. …” Murphy said. “This [was] a really good ball game. They're the home team, so they beat us in a squeaker.”