ST. LOUIS -- The Brewers to a man insisted they were one bounce, one timely hit, one big defensive play from breaking out of what has been a rather forgettable start to their current 10-game road trip.
On Sunday, those bounces, hits and plays came early and often as the Brewers snapped a four-game losing streak with a 7-1 win over the Cardinals.
The Brewers took advantage of two Erick Fedde walks to plate three runs in the first inning. William Contreras, Sal Frelick and Rhys Hoskins followed the free passes with RBI singles. It was the 500th career RBI for Hoskins.
The offensive outburst in the first inning marked the first time Milwaukee played with the lead in the three-game series against the Cardinals.
¡°Our offense got it going in the first inning and set the tone right from the first pitch,¡± Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. ¡°[Brice] Turang taking that walk, and then the number of hits in the first inning were great, and clutch hits. And that's what made it a nice day to get a lead and then add on again.¡±
The Brewers added four more in the fourth. Caleb Durbin and Brice Turang had RBI singles, then Christian Yelich capped the frame with a two-run hit to make it 7-0.
Yelich had a pair of hits and reached safely three times for the Brewers. He has hit safely in seven straight games against St. Louis, with six of those being multihit efforts.
¡°We were convicted,¡± Murphy said. ¡°We hit some line drives and we didn't roll over. I mean we didn't hit pull-side ground balls. You know, we hit line drives. We went the opposite way. We didn't try to do too much. That's who we have to be.¡±
Joey Ortiz continued the strong fundamental play in the field, making a diving play to rob Nolan Arenado of a hit and possibly save at least a run in the first.
¡°He made two or three nice ones today,¡± Murphy said of Ortiz. ¡°He was good today, and he made some plays in shallow outfield. He made that diving play, it changed the complexion of how that first inning went. It was a key point in the game, too.¡±
It was more than enough for Jose Quintana, who continued his strong start as a Brewer. Quintana (4-0) allowed one run on five hits in five innings. He struck out six and walked three.
Quintana became just the third pitcher in Brewers franchise history to win his first four starts with the team, joining Tom Candiotti (1983) and CC Sabathia (2008).
Being in the same company as Sabathia is special to Quintana, a fellow lefty.
¡°He¡¯s a Hall of Fame pitcher,¡± Quintana said. ¡°He's great. And you know, I'm really glad to be in the same position like him since he was one of the best left-handed pitchers in the game."
Quintana pitched around baserunners in all five of his innings. All six of his strikeouts were called third strikes, including back-to-back punchouts of Brendan Donovan and Arenado to get out of a third-inning jam.
¡°He didn't have his great stuff today,¡± Murphy said. ¡°The zone was a little tighter today, and he did expand, but he wasn't getting the calls. So he was behind the count a lot, but he was around the zone all day. And in typical fashion, he just stayed relentless and stayed after it. Just he continued to make big pitch after big pitch.¡±
Even the Milwaukee replay crew got in on the momentum-switching fun by successfully challenging a safe call on an Arenado grounder in the seventh. Had the call stood, the Cardinals would have had the bases loaded with a chance to get back into the game. Instead, the inning ended when the replay showed Arenado never touched the bag.
The Brewers have won all three challenges this season and Murphy gives a lot of credit to manager of Major League technology August Sandri and Major League technology operations specialist Abdel Yeb, who head up the team¡¯s challenge system.
¡°That's not an easy one, you know, that gets overlooked,¡± Murphy said. ¡°They looked at it and saw that he might not have touched the base, and that's pretty special. And it's big of New York to not let that stand, to see clearly he did not touch the base. ¡ That's a game-changer right there.¡±