Brent Suter bounces back quickly from first-pitch homer to dominate Cardinals

Brent Suter's night began about as poorly as a night can for a pitcher when he gave up a first-pitch home run to Matt Carpenter.

It got a whole lot better for the left-hander after that, however.

Suter settled right back in and retired the next 12 hitters he faced while the Milwaukee Brewers' offense scored seven runs on an uncharacteristically wild Carlos Martínez.

By the time all was said and done, Suter had another terrific start to his credit and the Brewers had a surprisingly easy 11-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the bag.

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“Not that I just laid it in there, but it kind of fired me up," Suter said of the homer, which came on an 86-mph fastball.

"It was like 'OK, they’re coming out swinging. I have to locate better and come out with that much more conviction on my early pitches.' After that, I was able to get some early outs and keep them off the bases."

Suter responded to the homer immediately afterward by striking out Tommy Pham and José Martínez, and then he induced a ground out by Marcell Ozuna.

A two-run double in the bottom of the first by Jesús Aguilar gave him the lead, and Suter was off to the races from there. He posted 1-2-3 innings in the second, third and fourth while his Cardinals counterpart was struggling.

The Brewers scored a pair against Martínez again in the third and then applied the finishing touches in the fourth with a Manny Piña homer, a Lorenzo Cain RBI single and a Travis Shaw sacrifice fly.

While the fireballing Martínez was all over the place in his start, throwing wild pitches and getting hit hard, Suter was the model of efficiency as he mowed through the St. Louis lineup with his trademark get-it-and-go approach.

"He made a bunch of their guys uncomfortable," manager Craig Counsell acknowledged.

"He was working really fast and I don't think he got into the stretch until the fourth inning. His pace was solid tonight and a couple of their hitters just had trouble with that.

"He was locating his pitches. To me, this little run he's on, his off-speed pitches have been well-located. Obviously he relies on his fastball a bunch but if he can use his off-speed effectively, judiciously and in good spots, it gets them off his fastball."

At one point veteran catcher Yadier Molina stepped out of the box to try and slow things down a bit against Suter.

“I don’t want to quick-pitch people; I don’t do that," Suter said. "But I want to keep the tempo up and let my fielders get back in and hit as quickly as possible. That’s how I operate.

"If that gets them uncomfortable that’s fine, but I’m just in attack mode and up-tempo.”

Suter hit Molina with a pitch to start the fifth and Yairo Muñoz doubled him in.

But aside from a walk drawn in the sixth by Molina, the Cardinals managed nothing else against Suter as he flirted with becoming the first Brewers starter to pitch into the eighth this season.

“Manny and I were on the same page," Suter said. "The changeup was good today. Since we’ve scrapped the slider, the curveball has become a barrel-misser. It’s a third pitch.

"When I had the slider and curveball, both were kind of really hittable. But now I’m just focusing on that curve and getting more depth on it. Three pitches were working tonight and it led to early soft contact.

"It felt really good.”

Suter might have gotten the chance had the Brewers not gotten a pair of runners on when his spot came up in the seventh. He was pulled at 89 pitches in favor of Hernán Pérez, who reached on an infield single.

Eric Thames followed with a bases-clearing triple to break the game open, and Suter "settled" for his second consecutive seven-inning start — one in which he allowed just two hits and a walk to go along with five strikeouts.

“The efficiency was there and just being able to fight through any kind of fatigue and being able to make pitches late (helps)," Suter said of his recent run of success. He became the first Brewers pitcher to record two straight starts of seven innings or more since Zach Davies last season (Aug. 26-31). 

"It’s something I trained for in the off-season so to see it be able to come to fruition the last couple starts feels good.”

Suter's eight wins are most on the team, and he's 6-1 with a 3.12 ERA in his last seven starts.

He did have to deal with one bummer, however. He cracked his favorite bat — the one he'd been using all season, including for his memorable homer off Corey Kluber — on a second-inning popout.

"That was my baby," he said.