The St. Louis Cardinals take the first half of a day/night doubleheader, edging the Milwaukee Brewers 7-6 Saturday afternoon at Busch Stadium – and they did it in dramatic fashion with 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th.
Milwaukee jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on Ryan Braun’s 18th home run of the season, a line drive into the Brewers’ bullpen in left field. The Brewers picked up 3 more runs in the 2nd. Milwaukee southpaw Manny Parra, making his first Major League start, then helped his own cause with a double – his first Big League hit, to score 2 runs and put the Brewers on top 6-0.
The Redbirds clawed back in the 3rd, scoring 2 runs. They added one more in the 5th and another in the 7th.
That set the stage for the 9th inning magic. Chris Duncan, pinch hitting for So Taguchi, doubled with 1 out and scored on an Albert Pujols’ single. Pujols was then eliminated when Juan Encarnacion hit into a fielder’s choice, but Encarnacion came home with the Cards’ 6th run to tie the score on Scott Rolen’s double. Ryan Ludwick then took advantage of the opportunity to shine. He singled to left on a 2-2 pitch to drive in Rolen with the winning run. Cards 7, Brewers 6.
Russ Springer (5-1) pitched 1 scoreless inning out of the bullpen to earn the win. Francisco Cordero surrendered 3 earned runs in 2/3 of an inning to take the loss.
Redbirds Manager Tony LaRussa didn’t stick around to see the outcome. He was tossed in the bottom of the 6th for questioning a strike call against pinch hitter Skip Schumaker.
