News
Crew scores 12 unanswered to cut Cards
Dominated early, Brewers counter with six-run seventh
By Adam McCalvy / MLB.com
10/03/09 1:15 AM EST
ST. LOUIS -- Baseball won't have a 20-game winner this season, and the Brewers are to blame. Well, the Brewers, plus two Cardinals errors and four run-scoring wild pitches on a wild night at Busch Stadium that could end up costing Adam Wainwright the National League Cy Young Award. The Brewers scored all of their runs in the span of three innings to deny Wainwright, who settled for the toughest of no-decisions in Milwaukee's 12-6 win at Busch Stadium on Friday that opened the final series of the season. Wainwright was cruising with a 6-0 lead with two outs in the sixth inning before the Brewers began an unbelievable comeback. Craig Counsell snapped a streak of 15 consecutive hitters sent down by Wainwright, and Ryan Braun followed with a double that put the Brewers on the board. They weren't finished. Milwaukee batted around and scored six runs in the seventh inning for a 7-6 lead, then batted around again in the eighth and scored five more. When it was over, the Brewers had their biggest comeback win this season, better than the five-run deficit they overcame to beat the Indians back on June 15. "That was a crazy game," said Counsell, who had three hits and scored three times. How crazy? Consider that when Wainwright took a curtain call in the seventh, he had a 6-1 lead and was nine outs from his 20th win. Across the field in the visitors' dugout, Brewers starter Braden Looper had surrendered six runs on 10 hits and was in line to finish the year with consecutive losses. Both pitchers' fortunes were about to change. "This is right there with the most disappointing, toughest regular-season losses that I can remember," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "It was an important win for us if we can get it with what was at stake. Adam has been so great all year long. I'm really, really disappointed." The top three hitters in Milwaukee's lineup -- Felipe Lopez, Counsell and Braun -- combined for seven hits, seven RBIs and six runs scored. Braun's tying, two-run double in the seventh inning left him one hit shy of 200, and he later scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch. "That felt like a playoff game for us," Braun said. "We're obviously not playing for much; [The Cardinals] are on to bigger and better things. But for one night, it felt pretty good." Especially considering the way Wainwright cruised through the first 5 2/3 innings. "He was thoroughly dominating," Braun said. The Yankees' CC Sabathia had already been knocked around in his unsuccessful bid for win No. 20 when Wainwright took the mound at Busch Stadium and watched Looper fall into a 6-0 hole. After Braun put Milwaukee on the board in the sixth inning, Wainwright surrendered consecutive singles to Jody Gerut and Alcides Escobar leading off the seventh and yielded to reliever Kyle McClellan (4-4). McClellan retired only one of the five hitters he faced and surrendered the lead on Braun's two-run double. Braun moved to third on a Prince Fielder groundout, then scored the go-ahead run on Jason Motte's wild pitch. It was part of a trend. Cardinals pitchers threw five wild pitches, their most in a regular-season game since 1954. "We made their relievers work and we took advantage of some things, but the vibe of the game seemed to turn really fast," Counsell said. "The vive in the stadium certainly changed fast. You're down, 6-0, and Wainwright was dominating, really. He was pitching like he pitched all year." The Brewers once again scored in bunches to bail out Looper (14-7), who allowed six runs and 10 hits in six innings and saw his ERA rise to 5.22, but will finish the year as the team's leader in wins. He's the Brewers' first right-handed 14-game winner since Cal Eldred in 1993. "I left the game a little frustrated," Looper said. "Baseball is a funny game." It wasn't so funny in the first inning, when Albert Pujols got enough of what Looper called a good pitch to bloop a double. He scored on a single to left field by Matt Holliday, who moved to third when Braun unwisely threw home. That left Holliday in position to score on Ryan Ludwick's smash single off Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder's glove. The Cardinals extended the lead to 5-0 with three runs in the third inning, then made it 6-0 in the fourth after Wainwright led off with a triple. Wainwright's smash nearly cleared the left-center fence, and had it done so, it would have been the 40th home run off Looper this season. Only 17 pitchers in Major League history have allowed 40. Did any small part of Looper feel for his former Cardinals teammate's failed bid for 20 wins? "A little bit, yeah," said Looper, who spoke with Wainwright earlier in the week. "You see a guy who's got 19 wins, but when you're the opposing team you just want to keep pushing, and our guys did that." The win nearly slipped away from Looper. After Braun scampered home for a 7-6 lead, reliever Todd Coffey was rescued from a seventh-inning jam when shortstop Escobar and second baseman Lopez combined to turn a fabulous double play. "That's got to be our best double play of the year, for sure," Counsell said. And perhaps their best win. Too bad it came too late for the Brewers, who are 78-82 with two games to play. "I've been around a long time and I've seen some crazy things," said Looper, who put Friday's game near the top of that list. "It just shows you that the year didn't go the way that we wanted, but we're still playing hard."Adam McCalvy is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
