May’s Gem Wasted as Cardinals Swept Out of Milwaukee

Cardinal Chronicle
May’s Gem Wasted as Cardinals Swept Out of Milwaukee
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

MILWAUKEE — The Cardinals handed the baseball to Dustin May on Wednesday afternoon with the kind of assignment that tells you plenty about where this club stands.

May, arguably the staff ace and certainly one of the organization’s most valuable trade-deadline bargaining chips, was sent into American Family Field to stop the bleeding, slow down the Brewers and drag St. Louis out of Milwaukee with at least one win.

He nearly did more than that.

May carried a no-hitter through seven innings, striking out nine, walking nobody and giving the Cardinals exactly the kind of big-boy start a club needs in a division road game. For seven innings, he silenced Milwaukee, worked efficiently and gave St. Louis every chance to avoid a sweep.

Then the eighth inning arrived.

Garrett Mitchell broke up the no-hit bid with a leadoff double, Luis Rengifo followed with a bunt single, and the Brewers finally forced the Cardinals into the late-inning game they have owned all week. Christian Yelich tied it with a two-out single, and Milwaukee took the lead when Masyn Winn booted Jackson Chourio’s grounder, allowing Sal Frelick to score in a 2-1 Brewers victory.

Mark one up for the Brewers’ bullpen.

That is the brutal bottom line from this series.

The Cardinals sent May — their best arm at the moment and one of their most interesting chips if July forces difficult decisions — into a matchup against Milwaukee’s bullpen game. May dominated. Milwaukee’s bullpen survived. And the Cardinals’ offense, which has looked far too much like a Triple-A club for most of this month, left town with another quiet afternoon and a three-game sweep hung around its neck.

St. Louis managed its lone run in the fourth inning, when Jordan Walker led off with a single and scored on Bryan Torres’ triple. That should have opened the door. Instead, it became the entire day’s production. Chad Patrick allowed one run over four innings, then Shane Drohan, Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill combined for five scoreless innings to close it out.

The Cardinals had the better starting pitching story. The Brewers had the better team.

That has become the separator.

May entered the day with a 5.00 ERA, but this was easily one of his sharpest outings of the year. He needed only 82 pitches to get through seven no-hit innings, according to MLB.com, and the Brewers had only two baserunners to that point — a hit batter and a catcher’s interference call. Neither advanced beyond first base.

For a rebuilding club still trying to decide what it is, that kind of start matters. It matters for the standings. It matters for credibility. And it matters for the front office, because if the Cardinals do reach the deadline as sellers — or even as selective reshufflers — May’s name will carry real value.

But Wednesday also showed the other side of that conversation.

A pitcher can only carry a club so far when the bats are silent.

The Cardinals lost despite allowing only three hits. They lost despite getting seven no-hit innings from their starter. They lost because the offense again failed to build a cushion, failed to pressure Milwaukee’s bullpen and failed to respond when the game tightened late.

That is how sweeps happen.

Milwaukee, meanwhile, continues to look like the sharper, more complete team in the division. The Brewers have won 15 of their last 19 games and remain atop the NL Central. The Cardinals have lost seven of nine.

This was not a blowout. It was worse in some ways.

It was a game St. Louis had in its hands.

May did his job. The pitching gave the Cardinals a chance. But the offense again came up short, the defense cracked at the wrong moment, and Milwaukee found a way to turn one inning into a win.

That is what good teams do.

That is what the Cardinals did not do.

St. Louis now heads home to open a three-game series against the Cubs on Friday, with Kyle Leahy scheduled to start.  The division gauntlet does not ease up. After being swept out of Milwaukee, the Cardinals do not need speeches. They need runs.

And they need them fast.

Photo Credit: Union Leader

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