Cardinals return favor with 1-0 win over Brewers

ST. LOUIS -- Matt Holliday's on-base streak ended at a National League-record 45 games to start the season long before Trevor Rosenthal got a double-play ball for the final outs.

The St. Louis Cardinals No. 3 hitter said he was surprised to have been ejected by plate umpire Joe West after arguing a called third strike in the seventh inning of a 1-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night.

"I obviously disagreed with the call," Holliday said. "I didn't say any cross words to the umpire, I didn't say any cuss words, I didn't call him any names.

"And apparently he didn't like that I was even mentioning balls and strikes, and that was it," Holliday said.

West declined comment to a pool reporter after Holliday spoke.

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny also was tossed after coming to the aid of his hitter.

"I thought he was getting his word in and next thing we know, we lost him," Matheny said. "He threw him out because he was tired of listening to him, I suppose.

"Obviously, I let it go too long," Matheny added.

Lance Lynn allowed five hits while pitching into the eighth and Mark Reynolds had an RBI single in the second for St. Louis.

"I had a good fastball tonight," Lynn said. "That's all I threw."

Tyler Cravy (0-1) made an impressive major debut for Milwaukee, allowing a run on four hits in seven innings.

"I expected to be a lot more nervous," Cravy said. "They were pretty aggressive, so the game plan was to make them swing the bats and keep the ball down for strikes and let them hit it on the ground."

The Brewers won the series opener 1-0 and Milwaukee pitchers had thrown 19 consecutive scoreless innings before Reynolds' RBI.

Lynn (4-4) struck out five and walked one in 7 2/3 innings.

"Really, he's finding a great feel for manipulating the fastball with cuts and sinks," Matheny said. "Not many people can get away with what he's doing."

Kevin Siegrist got the last out in the eighth and most of a sellout crowd of 42,835 stuck around to see Rosenthal earn his 16th save in 17 chances. The Cardinals are 6-2 with one game to go on the home stand.

Derek Jeter holds the major league record of 53 in a row to start the 1999 season for the Yankees. Holliday is batting .313 with a .429 on-base percentage and 24 RBIs, second-most on the team.

Matheny's ejection made a total of five in the last five games at Busch.

The Cardinals entered averaging 2.82 runs run support in starts by Lynn (4-4), fourth lowest among National League pitchers. In 10 of the 11 starts, they totaled 22 runs.

"He threw me some real good sinkers down and in," Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy said. "He had late movement and when you have late movement, you're going to get a lot of outs."

Randal Grichuk doubled with one out in the second and scored easily on Reynolds' two-out single. The Cardinals didn't have a runner in scoring position the rest of the way, and grounded into double plays in the third, fourth and fifth.

The Brewers had three runners in scoring position, the last time when Aramis Ramirez grounded into a game-ending double play. Ryan Braun fanned with two on to end the sixth.

Trainer's room

Brewers: Outfielder Khris Davis underwent surgery to remove torn right meniscus and will be sidelined 4-6 weeks.

Cardinals: Pitcher Adam Wainwright, lost for the season with a torn left Achilles in April, has been at Busch during the home stand.

Up next

Jimmy Nelson is 0-3 with a 10.24 ERA against St. Louis in three games. John Lackey is 5-1 with a 1.83 ERA at Busch in 10 starts and struck out nine in seven scoreless innings his last time out against the Dodgers.

No damage

Three Brewers chased futilely for Matt Carpenter's foul pop in the fourth and two of them -- shortstop Jean Segura and third baseman Aramis Ramirez -- tumbled into the stands. No one was injured.