Paul Goldschmidt will look to extend his hitting streak to 19 games on Saturday afternoon when the St. Louis Cardinals host the Milwaukee Brewers in the third game of a four-game series.
The Brewers won the series opener 4-3 on Thursday before the Cardinals earned a 4-2 victory on Friday.
Goldschmidt has been rolling since the beginning of May, and he is hitting .440 (33-for-75) with seven home runs and 23 RBIs over his past 18 games.
His two-run blast on Friday helped St. Louis level the series while snapping Milwaukee’s three-game win streak.
“It’s impressive, but he’s hyper-focused on just executing his plan, and that’s been the fun part to watch,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “It’s tough to execute more than what he has shown up to this point.”
St. Louis starter Dakota Hudson went just 4 2/3 innings on Friday, but he managed to hold the Brewers scoreless despite allowing five hits and four walks.
Matthew Liberatore (0-0, 7.71 ERA) will get the start for the Cardinals on Saturday.
It will be the 22-year-old left-hander’s second career major league appearance. Liberatore allowed seven hits and four runs in 4 2/3 innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 21. He struck out three and walked two.
Adrian Houser (3-4, 2.98 ERA) will be looking to shift momentum back in Milwaukee’s favor, and he will be aiming for his third consecutive quality start.
After tossing six innings and giving up just one run, which was unearned, on May 17 against the Atlanta, Braves, Houser held the Padres to one run in six innings on Monday. He limited San Diego to three hits and two walks while striking out four.
The Brewers’ offense will also be looking for redemption after leaving eight runners on base in the Friday loss.
Milwaukee was held scoreless for eight innings. Keston Hiura finally got the Brewers on the board in the ninth with a two-run home run, but the visitors could not complete the comeback.
Hiura’s home run was the team’s only extra-base hit of the night.
Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff exited the game after four innings due to right ankle inflammation. He said postgame that the ailment wasn’t serious, though it might cause him to miss a start.
After Woodruff left, Luis Perdomo and Brent Suter tossed two innings apiece to preserve Milwaukee’s bullpen for Saturday.
“We had a bunch of guys down tonight, needed to get them a day,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said postgame. “(Perdomo has) been outstanding in kind of the innings that he’s delivered, the outs that he’s gotten.
“To only have to use two relievers after you lose your starter after four is important, and that’s the carryover effect not just to tomorrow, but a couple days down the road.”
Kolten Wong, Tyrone Taylor and Omar Narvaez each had two of Milwaukee’s eight hits non Friday. Taylor produced multiple hits for the fourth time in his past eight games. He is hitting .367 (11-for-30) with three homers and 12 RBIs in that span.
–Field Level Media
