Andre Pallante, Cardinals Undone by Ugly First Inning in 6-2 Loss to Brewers

TL;DR

The Cardinals lost 6-2 to the Brewers after a disastrous first inning where Milwaukee scored four runs. Andre Pallante struggled, and the Cardinals only managed to score in the eighth inning.

Key points

Cardinals lost 6-2 to Brewers
Brewers scored four runs in the first inning
Cardinals had no hits until the eighth inning
Nathan Church was hit by a pitch and left the game
Brandon Sproat pitched well for the Brewers

CardinalsBrewersNathan ChurchBrandon Sproat

Andre Pallante, Cardinals Undone by Ugly First Inning in 6-2 Loss to Brewers

ST. LOUIS – When the Cardinals beat the Brewers on Monday at Busch Stadium, they reveled in the fact that they applied nearly constant “pressure” to their rivals by getting men on base in seven innings and taking 10 at bats with runners in scoring position.

On Wednesday, the Cardinals went six innings between their first hit and their second knock, and they didn’t scratch on the scoreboard until there were two outs in the eighth inning. For much of the game, the Cards’ most significant hit was the ball hitting the shin of Nathan Church, one that knocked him out of the game with a painful contusion. Church was the 28th Cardinal hit by a pitch this season, easily the most in MLB.

Milwaukee scored four times in the first inning and six times overall -- all of them with two outs -- and got a strong start from Brandon Sproat in a 6-2 defeat of the Cardinals to split the rain-interrupted two-game series.

“Sometimes you just run into days like today, where their stuff was better than our hitting,” said Cardinals first baseman Alec Burleson, who drove in his team’s first run of the day. “I just think that’s all it was. We’ll obviously play them again and we’ll learn from what they had today and go from there.”

Andrew Vaughn ended a seven-pitch battle in the first inning with a three-run home run off Cardinals’ right-hander Andre Pallante to give the Brewers’ all the run support they would need on a cool, windy day at Busch Stadium.

“I got out of my plan and got hurt by it,” Pallante said. “I’m capable of getting these guys out and I didn’t do that in the first inning. (Getting out of his game plan) was the most frustrating part, for sure.”