Cardinals 6, Brewers 0
Ron Roenicke hopes that perhaps less is more for his slumping Milwaukee Brewers.
After Jaime Garcia took a perfect game into the eighth inning and finished with a two-hitter in the St. Louis Cardinals' 6-0 victory Friday night, the Brewers' first-year manager decided to try a different approach for a team that has lost seven in a row. On Saturday, they won't take batting practice.
''We're going to get going,'' Roenicke said. ''It's just hard to say when it is going to happen.''
Prince Fielder said it's getting desperate for an offense that is hitting .158 (34 for 216) during the losing streak while managing only seven runs and getting shut out three times. Fielder is 2 for 22 this month with one homer and one RBI.
''It's gone way beyond pressing,'' Fielder said. ''After a while, you don't know what to do.''
Garcia (4-0) issued a four-pitch walk to Casey McGehee with one out in the eighth. On the next pitch, Betancourt grounded a solid single to left to end the no-hit bid.
''We've got great hitters,'' Betancourt said. ''It's just matter of snapping out of it.''
Garcia threw a four-hit shutout to beat the Padres in his first start, but hadn't gone longer than six innings in any of his next five outings. This was his third career shutout.
Albert Pujols had a single, sacrifice fly and three RBIs for the Cardinals, who pounded a red-hot opposing pitcher for the second straight game. Randy Wolf (3-3) entered with an 0.65 ERA his previous four games but gave up six runs in five innings while hitting three batters.
''There were times where I was missing all the way across the plate,'' Wolf said. ''When you do that, it's almost impossible to have a good outing.''
On Thursday, the Marlins' Josh Johnson entered with an 0.88 ERA on the year before surrendering five runs.
The Brewers got one-hit by the Braves' Tim Hudson on Wednesday and have been shut out three times during the slump.
The 24-year-old Garcia won 13 games last year and was third in the NL rookie of the year voting. The left-hander set the tone when he retired the side in order on only nine pitches in the first, and needed only 77 pitches to get the first 22 outs before the perfect game and no-hitter went out the window on consecutive pitches.
Rickie Weeks doubled over left fielder Matt Holliday's head with two outs in the ninth for the Brewers' only other hit against Garcia, who threw 102 pitches in a game that lasted 2 hours, 2 minutes.
Holliday extended his hitting streak to 12 games with an RBI double in the first, Colby Rasmus had an RBI triple and scored on Pujols' sacrifice fly to make it 3-0 in the third and Yadier Molina led off a three-run fourth with his second homer.
All three of the batters who were hit by Wolf scored. Ryan Theriot was hit in the left shin leading off the first and was taken out in the fourth for pinch-hitter Daniel Descalso, who also got plunked.
Wolf said he might have overthrown some pitches.
''I felt physically really good,'' Wolf said. ''Where I wanted to throw it and where it ended up were two opposite points.''
Pujols' two-run single capped the fourth for a 6-0 lead.
Brewers reliever Mike McClendon struck out five in a row during three perfect innings.
NOTES: Cardinals LHP Brian Tallet (broken right hand) was to have played catch for the first time Friday but that has been pushed back a week because doctors were concerned about the risk of re-injury. ... Cardinals RF Lance Berkman got a scheduled day off, well-timed because he's 3 for 27 against Wolf.