All good things, including winning streaks, must come to an end.
The St. Louis Cardinals jumped on starting pitcher Eric Lauer from the very beginning Saturday night at American Family Field, rolling to a 6-0 win to snap the Milwaukee Brewers’ six-game win streak.
Nolan Arenado and Jordan Walker both clubbed two-run homers off Lauer in the third inning to provide more than enough support for starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery. Arenado’s homer, which gave the Cardinals a 4-0 lead, was the 300th of his career while Walker’s four batters later was just his second.
BOX SCORE: Cardinals 6, Brewers 0
Montgomery carved up the Brewers for seven innings, allowing three hits and two walks while striking out nine. Milwaukee only made him sweat once, when it loaded the bases with two outs in the third before Christian Yelich grounded out to end the inning. Aside from that, Montgomery didn’t allow a runner to reach scoring position.
The performance was reminiscent of Montgomery’s first outing as a Cardinal against the Brewers last August in which he threw six shutout innings and fanned eight. That was during a season in which Milwaukee struggled mightily against left-handed starting pitching; through three games this year, the results have been more of a mixed bag.
Justin Steele dominated over six scoreless innings last Saturday at Wrigley Field, striking out eight. The Brewers bounced back to rough up New York’s David Peterson for five runs over four innings on Wednesday before being rendered helpless once again three days later.
The Brewers loaded the bases again late versus a different lefty – reliever Zack Thompson – but once again came up empty when Luke Voit struck out swinging.
The Cardinals opened the scoring in the top of the first with a pair of runs coming on an Arenado sacrifice fly and Willson Contreras’ broken-bat bloop single.
Lauer only lasted four innings, allowing six runs on seven hits and three walks, before giving way to the bullpen, which continued to be the biggest bright spot of the early season.
With five scoreless innings from Gus Varland, Javy Guerra and Joel Payamps, Brewers relievers have now combined to not allow a run over their last 20 1/3 innings.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers’ offense shutdown as six-game winning steak ends
