Gasser pitches 6 shutout innings in his debut as Brewers roll past slumping Cardinals 11-2

MILWAUKEE (AP) Robert Gasser allowed just two hits over six shutout innings in his major league debut and the Milwaukee Brewers trounced St. Louis 11-2 on Friday night to hand the Cardinals their sixth consecutive loss.

“It was everything I could have dreamed of, playing in front of that many people in probably the biggest game of my life so far,” Gasser said. “It was awesome.”

Willy Adames hit three doubles with two runs and a pair of RBIs as the Brewers beat the Cardinals for a seventh straight time, continuing a streak that began last year. William Contreras scored three times, Christian Yelich had two runs and Rhys Hoskins, Sal Frelick and Jake Bauers each delivered two RBIs.

Gasser walked none, hit one batter and became just the fifth Brewer ever to throw at least six shutout innings in his debut. The others were Jim Slaton in 1974, Steve Woodard in 1997, Chris Sáenz in 2004 and Brandon Woodruff in 2017.

Milwaukee acquired Gasser, along with outfielder Eury Pérez and pitcher Dinelson Lamet in the 2022 trade that sent star closer Josh Hader to the San Diego Padres.

“I think Gass came with a little chip on his shoulder, like, ‘I should have been here last year in my mind, and they made me wait,’ ” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “Maybe that's something that we could think about sometimes. Maybe we need to make some guys wait. Gass is a talked-about guy as a minor leaguer. It's great to see. They get here, they pay their dues, they get here and they've got a little edge to them when they get here.”

The 24-year-old left-hander continued the Cardinals’ scoring woes. St. Louis has scored 129 runs through its first 38 games. The Chicago White Sox are the only MLB team with fewer runs this season.

Nolan Gorman homered for the Cardinals, who totaled just five hits.

“At the end of the day, we’re not putting up enough runs," Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “We’re not stringing together quality at bats. Some guys are trying to do too much. It’s been a struggle.”

Milwaukee has outscored St. Louis 18-3 through the first two matchups of the four-game series. The last-place Cardinals fell eight games behind the NL Central-leading Brewers.

The game started out as a pitchers’ duel between Gasser and St. Louis’ Lance Lynn before the Brewers broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the fourth.

Contreras led off with a double and Yelich singled him to third before both scored on Hoskins’ one-out single. Hoskins was credited with only one RBI on the play, since Yelich scored from second after Lars Nootbaar mishandled the ball in left field.

The Brewers broke the game open by scoring five runs in the fifth and four in the seventh. All the fifth-inning runs came with two outs.

Yelich sparked the fifth-inning rally by laying down a perfect two-out bunt that rolled down the third-base line and hit the bag without going foul, enabling Frelick to score from third. Yelich said he started thinking about bunting as soon as the Cardinals brought in Matthew Liberatore to face him.

“I wasn’t really dead-set on doing it,” Yelich said. “It just felt like it could potentially be a good spot for it.”

TRAINERS' ROOM

Cardinals: RHP Keynan Middleton (forearm flexor strain) had a bullpen session Friday and will have a rehabilitation appearance Tuesday. LHP Steven Matz (lower back strain) played catch off the mound Friday and will have a bullpen session Monday.

Brewers: Manager Pat Murphy said RHP Devin Williams is less than two weeks away from playing catch. The two-time NL reliever of the year is expected to miss the first half of the season as he recovers from fractures in his back. LHP DL Hall (knee) will throw live batting practice Tuesday.

UP NEXT

RHP Kyle Gibson (2-2, 3.68 ERA) starts for the Cardinals and RHP Freddy Peralta (3-1, 3.49) pitches for the Brewers when this four-game series continues Saturday.

---

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb