St. Louis, MO – St. Louis' scoreless streak came undone in the late innings Sunday, as the Milwaukee Brewers lit up the Cardinals' bullpen and escaped Busch Stadium with a 4-3 win on Jonathan Lucroy's home run in the 10th inning.
Lucroy cranked a solo homer deep to left-center off Fernando Salas (0-2) to seal Milwaukee's comeback after Ryan Braun ended a string of 39 consecutive scoreless frames by the Cardinals' pitching staff with a two-run blast in the eighth.
Yuniesky Betancourt sent the game to extras with an RBI double off Mitchell Boggs in the ninth, and three relievers closed out the win in the 10th to end Milwaukee's three-game slide.
"I had a chance to get the win for us, and I didn't get the job done," Boggs said. "The sweep was there for us to take."
Matt Adams went 2-for-4 with a solo homer for St. Louis, which had won four straight and stranded the tying run on second in the 10th.
Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia took a no-decision despite scattering seven hits and two walks over seven scoreless innings. His counterpart, Marco Estrada, gave up three runs on seven hits over six frames.
Two of those runs came in the third inning courtesy of four two-out hits. Matt Carpenter started the rally with a fly ball down the left-field line that narrowly bounced in fair territory and went into the stands for a ground-rule double. Matt Holliday followed with a run-scoring single and scored when Yadier Molina split the gap in left field.
Allen Craig, who singled after Holliday, was nabbed at home trying to score on Molina's double, but the Cardinals got the run back in the fourth when Adams led off with a homer to straightaway center.
The Brewers had their chances against Garcia but stranded a pair of runners in the second inning, wasted Norichika Aoki's one-out double in the fifth and hit into three double plays.
Things changed at the start of the eighth as Jean Segura singled in front of Braun's blast, which landed just over the wall down the right-field line for the Brewers' first runs in 33 frames.
Carlos Gomez greeted Boggs with a single to open the ninth, then raced around from first when Betancourt found the gap in right field with a double.
Betancourt was thrown out at home later in the frame when he tried to score on Segura's chopper back to the mound, but Lucroy put the visitors on top in the top of the 10th.
"Any time is a good time for a homer, but this was nice," Lucroy said.
The combination of Brandon Kintzler (1-0), Michael Gonzalez and Burke Badenhop finished off the win, with Badenhop retiring pinch-hitter Carlos Beltran on a groundout to record his first save since 2011.
Game Notes
The Cardinals fell shy of throwing four consecutive shutouts for the first time since 1943 ... Milwaukee has not been blanked in three straight games since May 3-6, 1972 ... Molina received the Gold Glove he won last year before the game ... St. Louis begins a 10-game road trip in Pittsburgh on Monday, while the Brewers have a day off before hosting the Giants for three games.
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