ST. LOUIS?The box score says the Cardinals hit three doubles in a four-run first inning that produced all the scoring they needed in a win over Milwaukee that swung the momentum of the NLCS squarely to St. Louis.
But two of the doubles could have been caught. To say they should have been caught might be a bit harsh. To say they were the kind of plays that make the difference between a good team and a World Series team is not.
Not making the plays on defense has been a bugaboo for the Brewers all season, and it bit them and starter Yovani Gallardo at Busch Stadium in a 4-3 loss Wednesday night.
Exhibit A: Jon Jay. After Cardinals leadoff hitter Rafael Furcal singled and took second on a wild pitch, Jay hit a liner to left-center just beyond lumbering Mark Kotsay, who was playing center field for only the 11th time this season. The way the inning played out, if Kotsay makes the catch, the Cardinals likely would have scored no more than one run in the inning.
"He didn't hit it that well," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "He hit it perfect in between two guys and we couldn't run it down."
"I gave every effort to get it, but came up short and they built momentum on that play," Kotsay said. The next three Cardinals reached and two more runs came in.
Exhibit B: David Freese. With two outs and a runner on third, Freese smacked a first-pitch fastball deep to right that went just over the outstretched glove of 6-6 Corey Hart and the Cardinals had their fourth run.
"Off the bat I thought I was going to get it," Hart said. "But it just kept going. I gave it a little lunge right at the end and it tipped off the end of my glove. I still think I should have got it." "I thought it was going to be caught when it left the bat," Roenicke said.
Roenicke had set his lineup against Chris Carpenter with an emphasis on offense, which was why Kotsay was given a rare start over slumping speedsters Nyjer Morgan and Carlos Gomez.
Kotsay rewarded his manager in one way, by homering in the third to make the score 4-3. But he also ran the Brewers out of a potential rally in the first when, with one out and two on, he broke from second on Prince Fielder's line drive to center and was easily doubled up. "I got caught in no-man's land," Kotsay said.
Two batters later came the defensive play he didn't make. At 35, Kotsay's speed is not what it once was and it never was considered better than average. Roenicke admitted that Gomez would have made the catch on Jay's double. But Kotsay didn't quite have the legs to get to the ball.
"It was a 3-2 count (actually 2-2) with a runner on second and a lefthanded hitter up. You're looking for him to pull the ball, not go to left-center," Kotsay said. "I knew I was going to have to lay out. Maybe if I lay out one step earlier, I get it. It went off the tip of my glove."
There was nothing Kotsay or the Brewers could do about the Cardinals' other double in the first, which came off the bat of Albert Pujols and scored Jay. Pujols took a curveball just off the ground and way outside and drove it to the wall in left-center for his fifth extra-base hit in the past two games and ninth of the postseason.
"He continues to do the things that amaze us every single one of us every single day," said Carpenter, who himself had a night to remember. He won his seventh postseason game, tying Bob Gibson for the franchise record.
The way Gallardo struggled with his command after Pujols' hit, few would have thought the Cardinals would not score after the first. But Gallardo pitched out of a jam in the fourth and the Brewers' bullpen held the Cardinals to one hit.
"From that point forward (in the first), we took control of the game," Kotsay said. "We just couldn't get that one big hit."
Or make the play on two doubles that might not have been.
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