The Cardinals Refuse to Be .500

The Cardinals came into today’s game looking to pull a series win against the no-longer-division-leading Brewers. Here’s the lineup:

Carpenter batting third! I don’t know why I put the exclamation point; I guess I just wanted to add some excitement.

They faced off against man of many faces Matt Garza, hoping to catch Matt Garza with this face:

Early in the game, Yadier Molina took a foul off his neck but stayed in the game, despite looking a bit dazed over the next couple batters. Well, let’s hope this does not become fodder for some press conference/Instagram shenanigans. Post-game quote from Mike Matheny on Molina staying in: “He's a warrior."

The offense was all but nonexistent today, as it’s been for the past week or so: 13 runs in the past 7 games is hardly something to cheer about. The only run the Cards could muster tonight was a single by Greg Garcia that scored Molina. They could only manage a total of 6 hits tonight (2 by Kolten Wong, 1 by Tommy Pham, 1 by Jedd Gyorko, 1 by Molina, and the aforementioned 1 by Garcia), and more importantly, they could not get more than one in an inning.

The Brewers were eminently beatable today, too. Their offense came from a solo home run by Jesus Aguilar (for the second straight day) and a single by Keon Broxton. Two runs should be beatable, but the Cardinals offensive skid put paid to that notion.

Keon Broxton also had a terrific grab that stole a home run from Jose Martinez, and he did it so casually, you’d think he does this every inning:

Will the Cardinals right the ship in Cincinnati this weekend? Tune in tomorrow evening to find out! Mike Leake faces off against his former team, where he hasn’t had a great deal of luck.