Zack Greinke allowed a run in the top of the first, but he wasn't bad; both of the Cardinals' hits came on pretty soft contact. Then in both the second and the third, Greinke set down the Cardinals in order. Greinke looked to be well on his way to an outstanding performance in an important game.
Brewers vs. Cardinals: David Freese’s Magical Home Run Puts Cards In Front
You can go ahead and forget all about that now. I guess Greinke might still have a good game - we’ll see how things go - but the top of the fourth dealt Greinke’s statistics a serious blow.
Lance Berkman led off with a weak ground ball single against the shift. No big deal. Then Matt Holliday struck out. Perfect. Greinke was still in command.
Then Yadier Molina walked on four pitches. Four close pitches, but still four pitches. That gave the Cardinals a run-scoring opportunity - or, if you prefer, it put Greinke in a jam.
And Greinke got out of the jam by throwing David Freese a first-pitch curveball in the center of the plate. Greinke didn't get out of the jam because Freese grounded the curve right at somebody; Greinke got out of the jam because Freese hit the curve over the right-center fence.
It didn’t look like Freese hit a home run off the bat. If anything, it looked like a soft fly off the bat, and maybe even a bloop single. But the ball got caught in some kind of jet stream that I didn’t know existed, and it just kept on going and going. Maybe this is why Greinke has had so much home run trouble all season. Maybe he’s just allowed a bunch of weak fly balls that got caught in an inexplicable jet stream.
In any case, a 2-1 Brewers lead turned into a 4-2 Cardinals lead with one swing of the bat, and that's where we are in the bottom of the fourth. Greinke's pitch count is up to 70, so we're going to see both of these bullpens before too long.
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