What could be the last Busch Stadium appearance in the same game for two players acquired to lead the Cardinals back to October relevance allowed them both to do what they had so well.
Nolan Arenado, the cornerstone player acquired ahead of the 2021 season to create a dynamic duo with Paul Goldschmidt, had the runaway hit for the Cardinals when he cleared the bases with a double. Arenado’s three-run liner broke open the decisive fifth inning and launched the Cardinals toward a 7-1 victory against division-leading Milwaukee on Friday night.
Not that Sonny Gray needed that much run support.
The right-hander, signed ahead of the 2024 season to lead the rotation, limited the Brewers in his final regular season start at home and struck out seven. Both Gray and Arenado have no-trade clauses, but the Cardinals are also expected to explore possible deals they’ll accept this winter to reduce payroll and hasten the deeper pivot toward youth and homegrown players.
The win allowed the Cardinals to do their part to keep the Brewers from clinching the National League Central title at Busch this weekend. The Brewers’ magic number reached three with the Cubs loss. An NL Central title will be their sixth since joining the division in 1998, and that total would tie them with the Cubs for the second-most behind the Cardinals’ dozen.
The Brewers scattered nine hits against Gray. While he did not have a three-up, three-down inning, Gray cooled the Brewers by holding them to eight singles. The only run he allowed came on a 422-foot solo homer by Brewers leadoff hitter Sal Frelick.
That cut the Cardinals’ lead in half in the third.
By the time Gray (14-8) was finished, the Cardinals had widened the lead with their five-run flurry of hits in the fifth. Leadoff hitter Brendan Donovan had two hits and scored two runs while Alec Burleson raised his average to .289 with three hits. The Brewers had 12 hits total and stranded 10 by going 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position.
Arenado clears the bases
When cleanup hitter Arenado came to the plate in the fifth inning, the three teammates ahead of him had already singled off lefty and Mizzou product Rob Zastryzny. He had a chance to do something no Cardinal has done since he did more than a year ago.
The Cardinals are one of two teams in the majors yet to hit a grand slam this season. (The other is also from Missouri.) The Cardinals’ previous grand slam came on Aug. 21, 2024 – and it was against the Brewers.
And it was by Arenado.
He did not hit their first Friday.
A bases-loaded double would have to suffice.
The Cardinals’ third baseman, less than a week removed from spending a month on the injured list, was greeted by a new reliever, right-hander Grant Anderson. Arenado did what the Cardinals had to most of the Brewers’ pitchers – work the count. Arenado fell behind on the first pitch, fouled of several to stay in the count, and then got it to full. He fouled off three pitches total and two with a full count – both of them four-seam fastballs at 95 mph.
On the eighth-pitch of the at-bat, Anderson tried to wedge a sinker inside on Arenado, and the Cardinals’ cleanup hitter got his hands in and pulled the ball hard for a double down the left-field line. All three teammates who singled – Brendan Donovan, Ivan Herrera, and Alec Burleson – scored, and Arenado took third on an error.
He would score on Thomas Saggese’s double.
The Cardinals batted around in the inning. They had seven hits, and five of the 10 batters who came to the plate came back around to score on the same plate.
Since returning from a shoulder injury, Arenado has five RBIs in the home stand.
Hardest hit of season? That’s Walker’s
Toward the end of the Cardinals’ five-run jubilee in the fifth inning, Jordan Walker connected for the hardest hit by any Cardinal this season based on exit velocity.
The Cardinals’ right fielder, who has some of the highest exit velocities for the team in the past three seasons, connected to a sharp single up the middle that scored Saggese. It was the hit that brought home the Cardinals’ final run of the rally, and it put Walker up in the rankings with some of the hardest-hitting batters in baseball.
The ball left Walker’s bat at 117.9 mph.
That ties for the seventh-swiftest exit velocity of this season in the majors. Walker zips in right behind Aaron Judge’s fastest of the season (118.1 mph) and James Wood’s fastest (118.0 mph) and right ahead of Bobby Witt Jr.’s quickest exit velocity (117.5 mph).
Despite Walker’s struggles throughout the season and his .213 average entering Friday’s game, when he hits the ball he often does it with authority. The Cardinals’ third-year outfielder ranks in the 90th percentile for average exit velocity and the top 99th percentile in the majors for bat speed.
It’s a grind for The Miz
The first club to see Jacob Misiorowski’s barrage of 100-mph fastballs at the big-league level before it accelerated his invite to the All-Star Game, the Cardinals took the approach of seeing even more of them in the early innings. It helped that the Brewers rookie also scattered the velocity in and around the strike zone for most of his start.
Misiorowski (5-3) opened his 14th start of the season and third against the Cardinals with eight of his first 11 pitches leaving his fingertips at 98.9 mph or faster.
Ten of his first 14 were also balls.
Misiorowski, a Missouri native nicknamed “The Miz,” walked the first two batters of the first inning. He would walk three of the first six he faced. The Cardinals capitalized with a run in the first inning on Lars Nootbaar’s RBI single, and then he was thrown out trying to extend for second base. That ended the inning abruptly, but not before the Cardinals had forced the right-hander to throw 25 pitches.
Despite double plays that helped Misiorowski out of the second and third innings, the Cardinals could continue to prolong at-bats and crank up the young right-hander’s pitch count. By the time he plunked Nootbaar with a pitch and allowed a second single to Pedro Pages, Misiorowski’s pitch count was nearing 80 in the fourth inning. He would 11 outs on 77 pitches and allow two runs on five hits and three walks.
Once the Brewers bullpen got involved, the Cardinals feasted.
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Derrick Goold | Post-Dispatch
Lead baseball writer
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