It's the same old story as Adrian Houser handles the Cardinals but the Brewers offense can't back him in a 2-1 loss
Todd Rosiak
Adrian Houser was up to his old tricks against the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night.
But unfortunately for the right-hander, so were the Milwaukee Brewers' bats.
Houser continued his streak of mastery over the Cardinals with 5⅔ strong innings only to see his efforts go for naught as another nine innings of offensive impotence paved the way for a 2-1 loss at American Family Field.
Stymied this time by left-hander Steven Matz and a hard-throwing St. Louis bullpen, the Brewers barely avoided being blanked for the third time in nine games after managing five hits in total and three over the final seven innings.
Box score:Cardinals 2, Brewers 1
More:With just four homers in eight games, the Brewers' bats are experiencing a power outage
Victor Caratini's two-out homer off Genesis Cabrera in the eighth broke up the shutout.
Pulling the lens back even further, the Brewers have scored two runs over their last 20 innings and homered just twice in their last six games.
For his part, Houser lowered his earned run average to 0.59 over his last five starts against the Cardinals and in general pitched much better than he did in his season debut Monday at Baltimore.
A leadoff single in the ninth by Willy Adames gave the Brewers a glimmer of hope, but Hunter Renfroe popped out after getting ahead in the count, 3-1, and Rowdy Tellez came off the bench and hit into a game-ending, 4-6-3 double play.
Matz, who entered sporting a hefty 21.00 ERA after his initial start, scattered two hits over his first three innings as Milwaukee's offense continued to spin its tires.
Houser was just as effective early, generating seven outs via six ground balls before losing briefly losing his command in a 27-pitch fourth.
The trouble started with consecutive one-out walks issued to the dangerous Tyler O'Neill and Nolan Arenado. Houser got to within an out of escaping unscathed, but Paul DeJong lined a double to left in a full count to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead.
Houser recovered to strike out four straight batters but finished one out shy of recording his first quality start of 2022 when he walked Corey Dickerson.
Trevor Gott finished the inning, leaving Houser's line at four hits allowed, one run and three walks with four strikeouts in 97 pitches – tied for the most thrown by a Milwaukee pitcher.
Matz was even tougher as he ran his streak of consecutive batters retired to 11 before Andrew McCutchen blooped a single to short left with one out in the sixth.
Matz struck out Willy Adames and departed in favor of Ryan Helsley, who eventually struck out Renfroe with a 101 mph fastball.