The Milwaukee Brewers didn’t have a traditional starting pitcher May 27, didn’t even have a hit for the first seven innings and still found a way to pull something off that they haven’t done at American Family Field since 2011: a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.
The find-a-way Brewers (33-20), a team that has hit fewer home runs than any other squad in Major League Baseball, manufactured just three hits all day, but all of them came in the eighth inning of the 2-1 victory against the team’s top competition in the National League Central. It was the first win of the year with three or fewer hits and the first sweep of the Cardinals (three or more games) since June 10-12, 2011.
The Brewers moved to 4 ½ games ahead of the Cardinals for first place in the division, with the Reds now tied in second place. And they did it on a day when Cardinals starter Dustin May opened with seven no-hit innings.
“You feel like you kind of stole one a little bit,” said Brewers designated hitter Christian Yelich, whose two-out RBI single in the eighth against reliever JoJo Romero tied the game at 1-1 and set the stage for the Brewers to score a go-ahead run on a Cardinals error. “Credit to our pitchers for keeping us in the game, you were only chasing one run. It can change quick, and we were fortunate to get some traffic there in the eighth inning and we did just enough.”
Some takeaways from the win at American Family Field:
The offense provided the heroics, but the pitching plan provided the victory’s spine
After Logan Henderson landed on the injured list with a back injury and the Brewers handed a Friday assignment to newly recalled Coleman Crow, the Brewers turned to a bullpen game. But with the unique assets of Chad Patrick, Shane Drohan and Aaron Ashby, all of whom have been effective in leverage long-relief roles, Milwaukee only needed four pitchers, including a notable ninth-inning save from Trevor Megill.
“It’s a little unconventional but we we’ve been able to get away with it,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.
Patrick, who held a 2-1 lead against the Twins over four innings for a May 16 save, already has five relief outings this year of more than three outs, and four of three innings of more. Since he started May 27, this outing only spiritually belongs in that category, but he allowed only one earned run on five hits in his four frames.
“I treated it as if I was coming out of the bullpen,” said Patrick, who found out around 9:30 a.m. that he’d be taking the ball first for the 12:40 p.m. start. “I think it takes the pressure away. As the starting pitcher sometimes, you create that pressure, trying to be so perfect and things like that, so I just wanted to take that away from the day and be myself.”
Aaron Ashby 9-0 as wild win-collecting continues
In came the lefty Drohan, who allowed one hit in two innings. Next came Ashby, who likewise allowed one hit (and one walk) in two innings. He stuck around long enough to inherit a Major League-leading ninth victory this season, a confounding stat for someone whose only start this year came in an “opener” capacity.
“Jim [Henderson, assistant pitching coach] and I made eye contact [after the Brewers took the lead],” Ashby said of the bizarre 9-0 record. “It’s just one of those things where I looked at him and he looked at me, and I was like, ‘I don’t know what to tell you.’ I don’t know what’s going on. It’s hard in that inning when you have no hits and you’re getting up there and you’ve, in a way, been defeated all day. We put good at-bats together.
“But G-Mitch [Garrett Mitchell], double the other way, it’s a really solid hit to have right there. You don’t want the cheap one, right? It kind of feels like the guys can get behind that. And then [Luis] Renigfo’s bunt there just kind of opened the door for us gave to take a breath, I guess, and just put more good ABs together. When we put the ball in play like that, we’re usually going to have success.”
Dustin May was nearly untouchable, until he wasn’t
The pendulum swung in the Brewers’ favor when Mitchell clubbed that double leading off the eighth for the first hit of the game against May, a ball that narrowly eluded outfielder Bryan Torres. Rengifo followed with a bunt that found a no-man’s land up the third-base line between pursuing Cardinals defenders.
Then, the pendulum swung back to St. Louis against reliever JoJo Romero when Sal Frelick hit into a forceout that couldn’t score Mitchell from third, and pinch-hitter Andrew Vaughn struck out.
But Yelich singled up the middle, and Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn booted a sharp Jackson Chourio bouncer near the same spot of the diamond, allowing Rengifo to score the go-ahead run. Winn, who made a slick fielding play to end the fifth and keep the no-hitter intact, also reached third base in the ninth with two outs but was stranded by Megill, who recorded just his second save since April 17 when he struck out Yohel Pozo to end the game.
“Rengifo getting that ball down where it needed to be, on the third base side, that’s winning baseball,” Murphy said. “Sal doesn’t get it done and Vaughny surprisingly doesn’t get it done, but they pick each other up with two outs.”
May tortured the Brewers hitters for most of the day. Though he came into the game allowing 10 hits per nine innings of work, he threw just 82 pitches to negotiate seven hitless innings, retiring 12 straight before the eighth and recording a season-high nine strikeouts. His only baserunners were Jake Bauers, struck by a pitch in the second, and Frelick, who reached on catcher’s interference in the third.
“That cutter was special, going on the same plane,” Murphy said. “That’s the domination right there, he was tremendous for that amount of time, into the eighth. Isn’t that how our game goes? Mitchell puts things together, and it’s fun to see him after the years he’s had, injured and everything else, fun to see him coming into his own and gaining some confidence. Yelich … there’s no situation too big. He does so much for us, both in the clubhouse and on the field. It’s not surprising.”
Megill gets the call in the ninth, and he probably will again
One day after Abner Uribe’s wild celebration directed at the Cardinals drew rebuke from Murphy, the Brewers turned to Megill in the ninth inning. Though Winn singled and stole second with one out, Megill was able to record a long fly out and a strikeout to preserve the victory.
“It’s not a one day thing,” Murphy said of using Megill in the save situation. “We’re just trying to work out the back end right now. Those guys have pitched a lot the last couple years, and haven’t been totally on it [this year]. They haven’t thrown the ball the way they’re capable of, and their focus maybe hasn’t been as on when it needs to be on. Not trying to criticize, it’s just sometimes to maintain that level of excellence they’ve had, sometimes it takes a lot.”
Megill, an all-star closer last year, has a 1.29 ERA in 14 innings since his last blown save April 14.
The Brewers allowed just two Cardinals runs throughout the series. Wednesday’s came from Torres, who played with the independent Milwaukee Milkmen squad in 2022 and 2023, winning two league batting titles. Originally signed by the Brewers and a longtime member of the organization starting in 2015, Torres was promoted to the big leagues for the first time earlier this month after 11 years in pro baseball.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Takeaways from Milwaukee Brewers’ 2-1 win over St. Louis Cardinals