Cardinals v Brewers recap: Lance Lynn blanks Brewers in 1-0 nailbiter

It was a lovely night at Busch Stadium as Lance Lynn (3.41 ERA, 3.05 FIP, 3.37 xFIP) faced off against Brewers righty Tyler Cravy (4.04 ERA, 4.51 FIP in 9 games at AAA Colorado Springs) who's fresh from the farm.

The Brewers rotation was in a bit of disarray after a 17 inning marathon on Sunday. Cravy's start tonight was intended to put things back on track after Mike Fiers took Monday's start in place of Matt Garza who was called upon to throw 5 of those 17 Sunday innings.

This is Lance's second start since that terrifying night in Kansas City when he couldn't get loose. Let's hope he's free and easy tonight.

The Game

Free and easy he was, and thank goodness. Lynn shutout the Brewers over 7.2 innings and was rarely in much trouble.

The Cardinals scored the lone tally of the game in the 2nd. VEB golden boy Randal Grichuk doubled into the LF corner and Mark Reynolds drove him home with a single into CF, Randal looking quite speedy rounding the bags. Unfortunately Mark tried to take second on the throw home, and was out from me to you.

One reason for just the single run was a bevy of Cards double plays. Twin kills dampened the mood in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

A bit of a scary moment in the 4th as three Brewers went to chase a Matt Carpenter pop foul down the LF line and all three collided. Jean Segura and Aramis Ramirez tumbled into the stands. Thankfully everyone was okay.

Lynn picked off Segura in the 5th. Lynn's move seemed unusually good tonight, he had a few close throws over.

Things got a little heated in the 7th. Matt Holliday, trying to extend his on-base streak, struckout on a called strike well inside. Matt was having none of it and let Blue Cowboy Joe West know about it. Holliday and Matheny were both ejected. Joe West was not.

Here's how that at bat looked on Gameday:

Matt Holliday ejected from the game. That will end his on-base streak at 45 games.

— Baseball Tonight (@BBTN) June 3, 2015

Lynn's line: 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, 118 pitches

Kevin Siegrist took care of Gerrardo Parra to finish up the 8th.

Old friend Michael Blazek made an appearance for the Brew Crew, setting down the Cards in order in the 8th.

Trevor Rosethal came in for the save and promptly gave up singles to Ryan Braun and Jonathan Lucroy putting runners at the corners with one out and the slim lead in jeopardy. But then, Ancient Cardinals Nemesis Aramis Ramirez bounded a chopper to third. Carpenter declined to go home with the throw and instead started a nifty 5-4-3 double play to end the threat, the inning, and the game. What a turn by Wong in the middle to make it all work.

Source: FanGraphs

Tomorrow afternoon these guys will play the rubber game of the series in a businessperson's special, the Brewers Jimmy Nelson (3.90 ERA, 4.35 FIP, 3.88 xFIP) will take on Olympic-level sourpuss John Lackey (2.83 ERA, 3.13 FIP, 3.89 xFIP). First pitch at 12:45pm or so.