MILWAUKEE -- On the field, the Milwaukee Brewers suffered their 10th loss in 11 games, surrendering a 6-0 lead in a 7-6 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Miller Park.
St. Louis slowly chipped away at the deficit with a pair of two-run home runs and a solo home run, eventually taking the lead for good and cutting Milwaukee's division lead to just one game on a Matt Holliday home run off closer Francisco Rodriguez in the top of the ninth.
But baseball was put into perspective following the game when an emotional Ron Roenicke entered the media auditorium to inform reporters a player had suffered a death in the family.
It was clear something wasn't normal, as Roenicke took longer than usual to come to the media auditorium, even after what was a frustrating loss. The clubhouse was closed to reporters following the game.
"There's been a death in one of the families of one of our players so I don't want to answer questions," Roenicke said. "For respect of him right now, we're not going to let anybody in the clubhouse.
"Sorry, but these things are tough and I just don't want to leave any players open to anything.
"I don't want to say who it is or anything but we'll get this figured out tomorrow and we can talk then."
The Brewers jumped out to a 6-0 lead after two innings on Friday, scoring three runs in the first and second inning. As it turned out, Milwaukee wouldn't score again, accumulating six hits and stranding seven runners the rest of the way.
Brewers starter Yovani Gallardo was unable to hold the big lead, giving up a two-run home run to Matt Adams in the fourth inning before letting the Cardinals tie the game in the sixth. Kolten Wong led off the sixth with a solo home run and Holliday followed with a walk.
After Adams struck out, Cardinals shortstop Jhonny Peralta connected for a two-run home run to make it 6-5. St. Louis then loaded the bases with one out against Rob Wooten, but Zach Duke was able to limit the damage to just one more run.
While St. Louis completed the comeback win on Holliday's home run against Rodriguez in the ninth, the focus of the Brewers after the game was on the loss suffered by the unspecified player.
Milwaukee's slide from the top of the National League continued Friday, and the Brewers face the difficult task of having to solve Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright on Saturday. It was just quite difficult to think about any of that when hearing Roenicke address the tragedy.
There was no sign anything was wrong before the game, as each member of the Brewers was in the clubhouse prior to batting practice.
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