Ben Sheets pitched quite well, well enough to tie his career high for wins in a season with 12, but the story of Tuesday night was definitely the Milwaukee offense.  They pounded out a stupendous dozen runs in their biggest victory in St. Louis in history, and everybody pitched in.  Each starting position player had at least one hit, and a handful had many hits.  Prince Fielder knocked in Ray Durham in the first inning for a 1-0 lead (Durham left the game due to a seemingly minor injury later on).  In the third, J.J. Hardy tripled to start things off and Fielder drove him in on an RBI groundout with one gone.  In the fifth, Albert Pujols made a rare error that allowed Durham to sprint home to stretch the lead to 3-0.  Two more runs were tacked on in the seventh when Ryan Braun hammered his 33rd homerun of 2008, but the big blow to the Redbirds came in the ninth.  Eleven Brewers batted, and some of the memorable hits included a Jason Kendall bases-clearing double and a two-run homer by Bill Hall.  Sheets threw 6.0 good innings, and relievers Brian Shouse, David Riske, and Eric Gagne picked up where he left off.  Todd Wellemeyer was saddled with the loss, but his teammates did most of the damage, giving up 7 runs in relief.

Offensive MVP: Ryan Braun (3-5/2R/1HR/2RBI/1BB/0K)

Pitching MVP: Ben Sheets (6.0IP/5H/0ER/2BB/4SO/0HR/Win-12th)

Alex’s Take:

Year after year after year the Cardinals totally dominated Milwaukee.  It seemed as though the Cards were always gunning for the division and the Brewers were cellar-dwellers, but apart from a few exceptions, Tony La Russa’s clubs ALWAYS had Milwaukee’s number.  Not so in 2008, when the Crew needs to fight off the historical rivals to get into the postseason.  Milwaukee is 6-0 against the Redbirds in their last 6 games, and are in a position to sweep them for the second straight time at Busch Stadium tomorrow.  The Crew is playing spirited baseball this August, when they crumbled so badly last year, and it is very encouraging.  If they can keep this success on the road against Wild Card contenders going, there is really no reason why Wisconsin won’t have meaningful October baseball again.