Brewers drop "chippy" loss in game three of Cardinals series

The Milwaukee Brewers took the first two games of an important four-game set against their hated division foe, the St. Louis Cardinals, in emphatic fashion. The first game started with five no-hit innings from one of the highest-rated pitching prospects in Brewers history, Jacob Misiorowski, and was completed with a two-run blast by the organization's highest-rated hitting prospect in recent past, Jackson Chourio. Game two saw a tightly contested match between the two division rivals, with the Crew eking out a 3-2 win on the backs of William Contreras, who had two RBI in Friday night's contest, and Christian Yelich, who added an RBI of his own to propel the team into the win column.

Game three was a different story. Not only did the Crew drop a three-run loss to their division rival, but the game featured far less decorum than one would expect from the storied franchise in St. Louis and the recent NL Central leaders in Milwaukee. Paired with the fact that just half a game separates the two teams in the season standings, Saturday night's loss felt like a personal shot from the St. Louis Cardinals, who took the win in disrespectful fashion.

Cardinals stoop to new low in contentious win over Brewers

Tripping a rookie at first base on a routine groundout is simply an unforgivable offense from any big league first baseman, regardless of how much time they've spent at the position. However, that is exactly the situation that was initiated by Willson Contreras of the St. Louis Cardinals in game three of their four-game weekend series against the Brewers on Saturday night.

The Cardinals took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning thanks to an RBI single from left fielder Alec Burleson — a play on which Jackson Chourio gunned down Iván Herrera trying to go from first to third while Masyn Winn scored from second base.

The game was relatively quiet until the bottom of the third inning. To start the frame, the Brewers third baseman, Caleb Durbin, grounded a ball to six-time Platinum Glove Award winner Nolan Arenado, who casually scooped it up and tossed it across the infield to Contreras. After recording the out by a healthy margin, Contreras made a move that no first baseman should ever make: he stepped backwards from the bag into the base line. Durbin, who always runs full-steam down the line, collided with Contreras and fell to the ground. Luckily, the Brewers' rookie didn't sustain any injuries, but the instance was more than enough to set off a yelling match between Willson Contreras and the Brewers bench, namely team leader Rhys Hoskins.

As the contest continued, tensions continued to escalate between the two rivals. In the subsequent frame, the Cardinals' starting pitcher, Andre Pallante, plunked Hoskins with a 95 MPH sinker in the hand, despite Hoskins' only offense being standing up for his teammates. Meanwhile, Willson Contreras, who really initiated the entire situation, as he usually does, was hit in the elbow guard by Brewers' starter José Quintana in the following inning. Contreras picked up the ball, handed it back to Quintana, and tapped his former teammate on the back.

Unfortunately, the Brewers' putting Contreras on first base proved to be costly. After Quintana walked the next batter, Nolan Gorman, the Cardinals' power-hitting second baseman, sent one out of the park to deep right center field, giving the Red Birds a 7-1 lead. The pitch that Gorman took deep was Quintana's 101st of the night, and he was immediately pulled by Pat Murphy before throwing another.

While the Brewers did add a few more runs in the contest, highlighted by a home run by William Contreras in the bottom of the ninth, they never truly came within striking distance and lost by a final score of 8-5.

With a series win on the line, the fallout from last night's scuffle present, and just a half game separating the two teams in the standings, Sunday's series finale is sure to be an exciting one. Miles Mikolas takes the mound for the Cardinals, opposite Quinn Priester of the Brewers. First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m. CT.