Tuesday’s Game Report: Cardinals 6, Brewers 3
There is something about playing in Miller Park that seems to bring out the best in Yadier Molina.
Molina hit two homers and added a double, tying his career high of 10 total bases to lead the Cardinals to their sixth consecutive win Tuesday night over the Brewers.
Not only did Molina’s previous game with 10 total bases come in Milwaukee in 2017, this was the seventh two-homer game of his career – and the fourth time he has done it at Miller Park.
Molina now has 18 homers in 104 career games at Miller Park, the most he has hit in any visiting park.
The seven multi-homer games are the most ever by a Cardinals’ catcher, breaking a tie with Ted Simmons.
Molina came back from the injured list on Aug. 13 and was 2-of-21 in his first five games, but since then he has gone 14-of-31, a .452 average, in the last nine games. The Cardinals have gone 8-1 during that stretch and are now a season-high 15 games over .500.
Here is how the game broke down:
At the plate: Molina’s first homer, in the fifth inning, tied the game at 1 and then he snapped that tie two innings later with his second homer … Molina’s last two-homer game came on June 23 last year, also in Milwaukee. He then doubled and scored as the Cardinals added two insurance runs in the ninth. He also reached base on a walk … Kolten Wong entered the game as a pinch-hitter and doubled in a run in the seventh and added an RBI single in the ninth … Harrison Bader also had three hits, drove in a run and scored once.
On the mound: Miles Mikolas allowed one run on six hits over six innings, striking out a career-high 10 and not walking a batter … The other two Milwaukee runs scored on an eighth-inning homer by Yasmani Grandal off Andrew Miller. One of the runs was charged to Giovanny Gallegos … Carlos Martinez got the final five outs to earn his 16th save, but the Brewers got the tying run to the plate with two outs in the ninth after an infield single and walk. Hernan Perez’s bid for a game-tying homer was caught at the wall by Dexter Fowler.
Key stat: The Cardinals have scored six or more runs in each game of their six-game winning streak. They also scored six runs or more in six consecutive games last August, and did it seven games in a row in 2017.
Worth noting: Molina’s 18 homers at Miller Park are the fourth most by a visiting player since the park opened in 2001, one behind Albert Pujols for the most by a Cardinal. The two players ahead of Pujols and Molina are Andrew McCutchen with 22 and Joey Votto with 20 … The game was delayed by rain for nine minutes, even though Miller Park has a roof, when it began to rain and it took that long to close the roof … Tyler O’Neill homered during his rehab game in Springfield on Tuesday night … Dylan Carlson, the Cardinals’ top prospect, was named the Texas League Player of the Year on Tuesday.
Looking ahead: Jack Flaherty will get the start on Wednesday as the Cardinals try to complete a sweep of their three-game series.
