*Photo from Sports Illustrated*
On a night where history was set in St. Louis, it seemed only fitting that the home team ended on top. Lars Nootbaar homered, Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina made history, and the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Milwaukee Brewers with a 4-1 victory on Wednesday afternoon in St. Louis.
Playing a rare two game series against a divisional opponent, the Cardinals won the finale game to split the series at a game apiece. The Cardinals improved their record to 84-59 with this win, and have won 6 of their last 10 as Nootbaar and Nolan Arenado paced the offense.
But the real story came with the duo of Wainwright and Molina. Wednesday's game marked the 325th time that Wainwright and Molina started a game together, the highest mark in major league history. Wainwright and Molina passed the duo of Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan of the Detroit Tigers, who had 324 starts together.
Wainwright said of doing it with the Cardinals that "I belong here, this is where I belong and where I should have been. And this is where Yadier belongs and has been. This is just home for us, and we’re happy to do this here."
The scoring started in the top of the second inning, with Tyrone Taylor hitting a sac fly to score Jace Peterson, making it a 1-0 Brewers lead. In the bottom half of the second, Arenado crunched a solo home run to center field, getting the Cardinals on the board to tie the game 1-1. Molina then scored Brendan Donovan on a single to make it a 2-1 lead for the Cardinals.
Nootbaar resumed the scoring in the 5th inning, blasting a solo home run to center field, doubling the Cardinals lead to a 3-1 margin. When the 8th inning came around, Albert Pujols shot a double into left center field, bringing home Tyler O'Neill to up the Cardinals lead to 4-1, which they held on to for the rest of the game.
Cardinals manager Oli Marmol said of the record by Wainwright and Molina that "I think this record is pretty darn cool because I don’t see anyone coming close to touching it again. When you can be in the record book and know that it’s never going to be touched, that’s pretty darn cool. Just to be able to have the career that Yadi’s had behind the plate with the same team, that’s a lot of years catching. And then Waino, to be able to come close to matching those years, to get to 325, that’s a pretty cool record."
Taking the mound for the record setting start was Wainwright, who worked a gem with Molina. He allowed one run on 8 hits over 5 innings pitched. Andre Pallante picked up a scoreless inning in relief, followed by Jordan Hicks and Giovanny Gallegos. Ryan Helsley recorded his 17th save of the season.
Starting opposite Wainwright was Milwaukee's Corbin Burnes. He took the loss, allowing 3 runs on 7 hits and one walk in 7 innings of work. Brad Boxberger allowed one run while getting two runs in the 8th, with Trevor Kelley finishing the inning.
Burnes said of the loss that "I think today was a gettable game for us. We got to Wainwright early and we just couldn’t get those big hits to push some runs across. The Yankees have been scuffling a little bit, so they’re a team we can go out and get after it with. And we played a good series against the Mets early in the year. It’s two series, and obviously they’re first-place teams, but I think we can go out and win some baseball games."
Up next, the Cardinals get back in action when they host the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday night, with Miles Mikolas getting the start. The Brewers have a day off before hosting the New York Yankees on Friday night, with Adrian Houser starting.
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