Brewers reserves key in victory to avoid sweep against Cardinals
MILWAUKEE -- Sometimes the most unlikely lineup, one most expect to be shut out when it is revealed, can do the trick for a struggling offense.
Such was the case for the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday, as a lineup filled with reserves broke out for six extra-base hits to avoid a series sweep with 6-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Miller Park.
"It does happen, no doubt," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "You hope it doesn't happen that much, meaning your starters are playing better than your extras. It's probably not good if your extras play better than your starters. But a good game today. We got some big hits -- we got a couple of lucky breaks -- but I thought they did a great job."
With three starters already on the disabled list and the Brewers struggling at 3-15, it was a bit surprising to see Aramis Ramirez and Ryan Braun out of Sunday's lineup.
But both players told Roenicke they needed a day off Sunday, leaving the manager to starter Hector Gomez at third base, Logan Schafer in center field and Gerardo Parra in right field.
The need to give catcher Martin Maldonado a day off after five consecutive starters meant Juan Centeno making his first start since coming up from Triple-A on Tuesday.
"It's not something I want to do, rest them," Roenicke said prior to the game. "I need these guys in here playing, trying to win. When someone tells me they need a day off, they need a day off. If you're worried about a guy playing too much and getting hurt and we lose somebody, it's not a very smart thing to do."
Schafer got things going for the Brewers in the third with a one-out single that caromed off Cardinals starter Lance Lynn. Parra followed with triple into the right-field corner to put Milwaukee up 1-0 later.
One batter later, Adam Lind unloaded on a 0-2 fastball from Lynn for a two-run home run to right.
The Brewers answered the Cardinals cutting their lead to 3-2 by plating three runs in the bottom of the fifth on three consecutive hits with two outs. First, Khris Davis doubled to center to score Parra, who reached scoring position with a one-out double.
Elian Herrera drove in Davis with a double down the left-field line, while Hector Gomez made it 6-2 with an RBI single to left.
"To be honest, that's something we've needed to do," Schafer said of adding on runs with timely hits. "We've gone through some things where the ball doesn't bounce our way or some bad luck or something crazy, but tacking on those insurance runs is something we need to continue to do because you never know what happens.
"Any run we can get is great, but especially if we're ahead, if we can just keep scratching out runs and keep them at bay, that's what we're trying to do."
Despite a short outing from starter Mike Fiers, two three-run innings provided plenty of offense for the Brewers on Sunday.
Fiers lasted just four innings, allowing two runs -- one earned -- on nine hits with two walks and six strikeouts. He escaped bases loaded jams in the second and third before surrendering an unearned run on a two-out RBI single by Jhonny Peralta in the fourth.
Roenicke pulled the plug on the right-hander after Mark Reynolds hit Fiers' 89th pitch of the afternoon 451 feet for a solo home run to start the fifth.
"He was in trouble every inning," Roenicke said. "I don't know, it's hard to explain. The fourth inning, he threw a couple of fastballs that I thought were outstanding. Then he pops out again the next out again the next inning and Reynolds gets it.
"At times I saw some really good fastballs. It's just trying to maintain the location and life on the ball. He's just not consistent."
Michael Blazek earned his first big-league win by pitching two scoreless innings in relief of Fiers, while Jeremy Jeffress worked around a two-out single in the seventh to bridge the gap to Jonathan Broxton and Francisco Rodriguez.
St. Louis loaded the bases against Broxton in the eighth but scored just one run. The Cardinals outhit the Brewers, 13-10, but left 14 runners on base Sunday.
"The bullpen picked me up, because being a starter, I'm expected to go at least five, if not six and seven," Fiers said. "I had a lot of pitches up to that point, so Ron thought it was best, and it worked out. It's his decision, and it worked out."
The win ended what was a difficult homestand on a positive note. Fiers' short outing snapped a string of four straight quality starts, as the starting rotation appears to be stabilizing a bit after a slow start.
Milwaukee now heads to Cincinnati and then to Chicago hoping to find consistency at the plate it has yet to locate this season.
"I don't know about one day, but I feel like we've been playing better baseball lately, the last couple days," Schafer said. "We obviously lost a few of those games but all in all I feel like we've been playing a cleaner game. We've been making our pitches. Like (Sunday), we got into trouble a couple times but we made some great pitches to get out of it. We left a lot of (their) runners on base. That's what we need to do -- when we get into trouble we need to be able to get ourselves out of it.
"We had back-to-back hits with two outs and a runner on base, and those are the little things we need to be able to do to scratch out some wins."
Follow Andrew Gruman on Twitter
