Milwaukee Brewers: 250 Words or Less: 8/10/11

The Milwaukee Brewers continued their winning ways tonight, ensuring a series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals by winning 5-1.

Randy Wolf ran the show for the Brewers today, pitching an outstanding game. He stormed through 8 innings and missed out on a complete game effort because of a pinch-hit situation in the 8th. Wolf allowed one run in the 1st inning but pitched shutdown baseball after that, working on mostly grounders and fly-outs all game.

The Crew did it’s own damage in the first, loading the bases with no outs but only getting one run from it. But they kept getting opportunities and finally did something with them. The Cardinals played like a visibly nervous team. At home in an absolutely must-win 2 of 3 series, they instead drop the first two and now have to retreat to the final game tomorrow night.

You’d have to give PD Player of the Game to Wolf, but Prince Fielder and Corey Hart each drove in two runs, Hart’s coming in the 9th. With the team up 3-1, Hart singled in the two on base to allow closer John Axford a night of rest. Francisco Rodriguez instead finished a solid ninth, and the St. Louis crowd just seemed to know that defeat was imminent. The Brewers are playing absolutely out of their minds and are now a tolerable 26-35 on the road, including 5 in a row. Since the All-Star break, the Crew is 18-7 and the starting staff has been an exact 3.00 ERA and has averaged 6.1 innings per start.

This team is fresh, focused, and dripping with confidence, which should help them plow through a softer schedule after this one is up. Yovani Gallardo will close out tomorrow evening.

Follow me on Twitter (@MilwaukeeBrian) and don’t miss the Brewers’ “A Simple Kind of Fan” each Tuesday from Pocket Doppler’s Brew Town Boozer.

Tags: 250 Words, Corey Hart, Francisco Rodriguez, Milwaukee Brewers, Prince Fielder, Randy Wolf, St. Louis Cardinals, Yovani Gallardo