Cardinals’ quick hits: Arenado home defeats Brewers and wins Oviedo’s first MLB win

They had not always been able to synchronize the two.

They did it on Wednesday, emphatically.

In his 25th major event, Johan Oviedo, who rose on the trip in response to the Cardinals’ average terrain puzzle, won his first major league win. He had been 0-9. However, the victory came only when he froze Brewers’ lead in the single race in the fifth inning and Nolan Arenado changed it in the sixth shift. Arenado’s two-run home game with Oviedo’s 2 1/3 goal-free goal lifted the Cardinals to a 5: 4 win over Milwaukee and back to the National League Central Division at American Family Field.

To relieve newcomer Adam Wainwright, Oviedo entered the fifth round, with two veteran runners still at the base and one out. Oviedo got the globe that kept Wainwright from expanding the ERA and, more importantly, the expansion of Brewers’ lead. The young right-handed man picked up the pace, hitting three of the next six hackers he faced to give the game to the back of the box in a single run.

Unable to reach Giovanny Gallegos and Ryan Helsley on Tuesday after splitting four rounds, Genesis Cabrera made two substitutions, looking only briefly at the abyss of the ninth ball.

Cabrera got a second base draw from Christian Yelich to secure his first fight of the season.

The Cardinals built their attack in the first inning of Paul Goldschmidt and in the sixth inning of Arenado. It was only the fifth time in a season and a half that they played in one game. Goldschmidt pulled Brewers starter Eric Lauer’s walk in front of the Arenado offensive team to even out. Arenado’s 406-foot-shot to the left of the field at 2-0 allowed him to follow Goldschmidt all the way home.

The 24-year-old Oviedo made 13 starts for the Cardinals in 2021 as part of their insane scramble to cover the shifts when they dropped out of the fight in June, and had difficulty managing and being effective as a starter. Last week in Boston, the Cardinals rallied twice in the late stages of the game, but crashed past the Red Sox because the average lightener allowed the runs. Manager Oliver Marmol saw where the Cardinals’ need and Oviedo’s skills could come together: an ox garden.

“It’s a plan,” Marmol said. “Put it in a crate, I hope it helps.”

In his second appearance in the role, Oviedo repeated what he did in the first, and thanks to the rally, he became the sixth Cardinal thrower of the season to earn his first victory. He became the first Cuban-born player to win a game for the Cardinals after Tony Fossa in 1997.

Given his long tenure in Pittsburgh and his return to NL Central this year with Brewers, there is no active player who has played more against Wainwright than Brewers batsman Andrew McCutchen.

And only a few have had the same amount of success.

Opposing their history, Wednesday’s game included 77 field games, and by the fifth shift, McCutchen had two more games that changed the start of Wainwright’s game.

McCutchen marked the soloist in the fourth shift to take the Brewers to one of the Cardinals, and in the next shift he followed with a ground double, leading Brewers 4: 3. McCutchen’s home run took place on the first pitch he saw from Wainwright, and the double came on 101st and the last pitch Wainwright threw.

At the start of the trip, in Boston, Marmol abruptly removed Wainwright during the shift and did not give the veteran a chance to end the shift, get out of the match, and shape his start. He got that chance on Wednesday. Marmol promised Wainwright in the fifth shift to face two pitchers who came out of it – Rowdy Tellez and McCutchen. Wainwright had the opportunity to throw on the court to complete five rounds, qualify for an exchange and not let the second throw give up.

He didn’t break either striker and McCutchen’s RBI double meant Wainwright had misplaced the lead and was in the line of losing. But his square must determine it.

For the second time this season, Wainwright failed to complete the fifth shift, throwing 4 2/3 balls, scoring seven and promising four runs with seven hits.

McCutchen’s home game was the fifth of his season and the third of his career against Wainwright. Only Ian Happ (four) and Joey Votto (four) have more active players.

There was a moment when both Juan Yepez and baseball disappeared due to the brilliance of the tape forming the wall of the left square of American Family Field. As he turned and spun and tried to track down the volleyball toward the wall, he arrived and – maybe there was some catch somewhere in those lights.

As the ball rolled to the left square on the lawn, it was clear it wasn’t.

One of the compromises the Cardinals have made over the past month due to Tyler O’Neill’s injuries has been played on a pitch where Gold Glover, newcomers Yepez and Brendan Donovan usually tour. They bet on the bat. They are waiting and have got some glitches in this area.

They got several when Yepez sank to the center, cut straight to the left and failed to chase Yelich’s volatile volleyball from Wainwright in fifth. Instead of knocking out the other, Yelich had a double and Brewers had an inside. The draw of 3: 3 was due to Yepez’s duel, which was declared a duplicate, and Yelich received a letter three strokes later.

After being hit by Yepez at the start of the sixth shift, he was replaced by Lars Nootbaar to improve the defense of the court with one pass.

It is rare for Goldschmidt to have a day off, so there is little evidence, but it is powerful.

The day after Goldschmidt didn’t show up to give a painful lower back a rest, Goldschmidt returned to the starting lineup at the designated batsman and did what he had done in every previous game this season if he hadn’t played the day before.

Goldschmidt took the Cardinals 2-0 lead in the first round, following Dylan Carlson’s single with a 377-foot shot to the left. The home run was for Goldschmidt on the 17th of the season and fourth after the day off. Goldschmidt have missed a total of four games in the Cardinals’ first 71 games this season, and after his first home game on Wednesday, he scored seven goals and five goals in those games with 7 goals (0.538).

The sacrificial fly, which took the Cardinals forward in two races and later became more important, elevated Albert Pujols to the top of the career charts.

In the fourth shift, Pujols sailed the ball to the left field, far enough to be a sacrificial fly, which led Arenado to lead 3: 1. In the 120th sacrifice of Pujols’ career, he shared Ruben Sierra and the Hall of Fame with George Brett for the sixth time ever.