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Miller, Cardinals try to avoid sweep vs. Brewers

Apr 30, 2014 - 12:57 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Shelby Miller hasn't been dominating over his three- start unbeaten streak, but has found ways to stay out of trouble.

The right-hander will try to fine-tune some things and remain unbeaten in his career against Milwaukee as the St. Louis Cardinals try to avoid a three-game sweep at the hands of the Brewers on Wednesday afternoon.

Miller is 2-0 and has been charged with just one earned run over his last three starts despite giving up 12 walks over 17 innings in that span. Overall, he has walked 18 batters in 28 1/3 innings.

Still, the 23-year-old snapped an 0-2 start to the season with a 6-1 victory at Milwaukee on April 15 as he yielded a run on three hits and three walks while fanning seven over six innings. That moved Miller to 4-0 against the Brewers lifetime with a 1.95 earned run average.

Miller then got a no-decision at Washington on April 20, though he logged 5 1/3 scoreless innings while working around four hits and five walks. He helped himself by striking out seven, then pitched the first 5 2/3 scoreless innings of a 1-0 win over Pittsburgh on Friday.

Miller walked another four and yielded three hits, but lowered his ERA on the season to 2.86.

"I haven't been pitching as good as I want to, but still been getting by," Miller told St. Louis' website. "I have found ways to get past (the walks) and make big pitches when it matters against tough teams that are doing well. That builds my confidence."

Brewers starter Matt Garza may have some confidence himself today after finally getting his first victory with Milwaukee last time out.

Signed to a four-year, $50 million deal in the offseason, Garza dropped a pair of decisions over his first four starts before topping the Chicago Cubs 5-2 on Friday. The 30-year-old righty allowed two runs on four hits over seven innings while striking out seven to just one walk.

"He really went after guys," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said of Garza's performance. "His fastball was excellent and he just went after guys. We're playing good baseball."

Garza is 1-2 with a 4.09 ERA on the year and one of those losses came to St. Louis on April 14. In the 4-0 decision, he allowed four runs on nine hits, two of those costly homers. He yielded a solo shot to Jhonny Peralta in the second inning before Jon Jay took him deep for a three-run homer in the sixth.

Garza is 3-2 with a 4.14 ERA in eight previous meetings with the Cardinals, but 0-1 with an 8.31 ERA in three outings at Busch Stadium.

The Brewers have won the first two contests of this set to snap a seven-series winless slide to the Cardinals, and can sweep the NL Central rivals for the first time since June 10-12, 2011 at home.

They have not recorded a three-game sweep in St. Louis since Oct. 2-4, 2009.

Milwaukee took Monday's opener in 12 innings, then posted a 5-4 victory last night thanks to Lyle Overbay's RBI single in the 11th frame that hit off the glove of Mark Ellis.

The Brewers have won nine of their last 11 games and are 11-1 on the road this season.

"We're just looking at it one game at a time," said Milwaukee starter Kyle Lohse. "We feel good about the way we've won the last two games. Our team is going to grind it out."

Yadier Molina homered in the Cardinals' fifth loss in seven games and the club is 6 1/2 games back of the Brewers for first place in the division.

"They've got a lot of confidence on their side right now," said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. "They've had a lot of things go their way. They're a scrappy club and they're fighting."

Milwaukee closer Francisco Rodriguez recorded his 13th save in as many tries this season, tying a Major League record for saves before May 1 that was set in 2001 by Seattle's Kazuhiro Sasaki.