MILWAUKEE BREWERS

Cardinals have Jimmy Nelson's number

Todd Rosiak
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Brewers starter Jimmy Nelson's night was cut short Friday due to rain in Pittsburgh.

A start against the St. Louis Cardinals has traditionally meant trouble for Jimmy Nelson, and Sunday proved no different.

Displaying the lack of command that plagued him throughout a nightmarish 2016 season, Nelson issued six walks overall and three in the decisive fourth inning as the Milwaukee Brewers eventually fell, 6-4, at Miller Park.

Two of those three fourth-inning walks eventually came around to score as St. Louis turned a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead it wouldn't relinquish the rest of the way. Nelson took the loss, dropping to 1-1 on the season and 0-8 with a 7.09 earned-run average in 10 career appearances (nine starts) against the Cardinals.

Granted, no one on Milwaukee's staff has had much success against St. Louis in recent years. The Brewers haven't won a series from the Cardinals since April 28-30, 2014 at Busch Stadium, and are 0-14-3 in series against the Cardinals over that span.

A year ago, Nelson was expected to be one of the Brewers' top starters. He opened strong, winning four of his first six turns before fading badly the rest of the way. Control problems were at the crux of the issue for Nelson, and by the time 2016 was finished he'd gone 8-16 with a 4.62 ERA.

His 16 losses tied him for the NL lead, while his 86 walks and 17 hit batsmen led the major leagues.

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BOX SCORECardinals 6, Brewers 4

BREWERS CHATTom Haudricourt, 11 a.m. Tuesday

SCOREBOARD: Live MLB scores, box scores

Nelson's 0-1 record and 4.58 ERA in five appearances this spring didn't turn any heads, but he issued only two walks while striking out 19 in 17 2/3 innings and held opposing batters to a .182 average. He carried that over into the season, pitching well in his first two starts before being hit hard last week by the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

He was tagged for nine hits and seven earned runs in a game in which the Brewers had jumped out to a 5-0 lead only to lose.

It was against that backdrop he took the mound Sunday looking to help Milwaukee earn a series split. But his command eluded him as the game progressed, and his afternoon wound up being defined by that fourth inning.

He walked Stephen Piscotty and Randal Grichuk to start, and each came in to score – Piscotty on a Kolten Wong double that Keon Broxton ran down but couldn't glove and Grichuk on a broken-bat, two-RBI single to center by opposing pitcher Mike Leake.

Leake's blooper made it 4-2, and Nelson kept it there until his exit with one out in the sixth.

"You just try to calm down, slow down and not try to do too much," Nelson said. "Manny (Piña) did a good job of slowing me down. I battled to get out of it, tried to minimize the damage and give our guys a chance."

He walked another hitter later in the fourth as well as one each in the fifth and sixth to leave him with six on the day – double the total he'd amassed through his first three starts (18 1/3 innings). Nelson allowed five hits and four runs (three earned) to go along with five strikeouts.

"He just got in a bad spot to me for that one inning, with the three walks in that one inning," manager Craig Counsell said. "That was the inning that really hurt him. I was proud of how he bounced back. He recovered. We were a really nice play from Keon away from really limiting the damage there.

"He came back in the fifth and did a really nice job and he got an out in the sixth for us. So he battled back. It’s obviously not the outing that he wants but he battled back and he got through it."

Two of the three hits that drove in runs against Nelson – Aledmys Diaz's third-inning single and Leake's hit – were of the broken-bat variety, making the outcome that much more frustrating for Nelson.

"There was a lot of soft contact," said Nelson, whose ERA now sits at 4.56. "But you can't really complain about it when you shoot yourself in the foot first."

Getting Nelson back on track would be a huge help for the Brewers, who will reinstate Matt Garza from the disabled list on Monday and start him for the first time in 2017. Junior Guerra is still weeks away from returning from his strained right calf and No. 2 starter Zach Davies is 1-2 with an 8.24 ERA after four starts.

Wily Peralta was also hit hard in his last start on Friday, leaving Chase Anderson with his 2-0 record and NL-leading 1.13 ERA as the team's hottest starting pitcher.