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Fielder's homer lifts Brewers over Cardinals

Apr 17, 2008 - 11:58 PM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Prince Fielder could not have picked a better time to end his power drought.

Fielder broke a tie in the 10th inning with a two-run homer as the Milwaukee Brewers topped the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-3, on Thursday.

It was the first home run of the season for Fielder, who led the National League last season with 50.

"I was jumping up and down like a little kid," Fielder said. "It was strange. Somehow, I felt like I had never hit a homer in my life. Maybe that was because I wasn't thinking about it anymore."

"It's a long year, and sooner or later, he had to get going," Milwaukee manager Ned Yost said. "He hits them in bunches he might now."

Fielder's blast completed a rally from three runs down for the Brewers, who scored three times in the eighth to knot the score.

Fielder capped the eighth-inning rally with a bloop RBI double to shallow left field that ended up tipping off the glove of diving left fielder Skip Schumaker, enabling Rickie Weeks to score from second base.

Rookie Hernan Iribarren started the uprising with a pinch-hit double off St. Louis starter Kyle Lohse to score Craig Counsell, who had doubled directly before. It was his first career double and RBI for the 23-year-old second baseman, who was sent down to Class AAA Nashville after the game.

"I felt just as strong as I did in the first (when he retired Milwaukee on seven pitches), and he guessed right what I was throwing," Lohse said.

Lohse was lifted in place of Ryan Franklin, who hit Weeks before J.J. Hardy sacrificed to put runners at second and third.

St. Louis manager Tony La Russa was quick to downplay the significance of Franklin's wayward 2-2 delivery to Weeks.

"He (Franklin) tried to get a ball in there with two strikes and he (Weeks) got nicked," La Russa said. "If you thought that was a pivotal play I couldn't disagree with you more. He deserves to be in there."

Ryan Braun sliced the deficit to 3-2 on a sacrifice fly and Fielder doubled after Franklin was pulled for Randy Flores.

In the 10th, Braun led off with a single against Brad Thompson (1-1) before Fielder, who fouled off three straight pitches earlier in the at-bat, drilled a 1-2 pitch to right field to snap a string of 53 at-bats without a homer.

Fielder was on the longest season-starting drought following a 50-homer campaign since his father, Cecil Fielder, had to wait until April 19 for his first longball in 1991.

Thompson was slightly unimpressed by his contribution.

"Every lefthanded hitter should, once in his career, enjoy the sight of a pitch like that coming his way," Thompson said. "When he (Fielder) is the batter, you can guess the result."

Brian Shouse (1-0) got Chris Duncan to ground out with runners on first and second to end a threat in the ninth and Eric Gagne worked around a hit and a walk in the 10th for his fourth save.

"Getting out of your own trouble for once is nice," said Gagne, who had blown two of his first five save opportunities prior to Thursday.

Ryan Ludwick finished with a career-high four hits for the Cardinals. The 29-year-old right fielder opened the scoring when he lined Brewers starter Manny Parra's first delivery of the second inning into the visiting bullpen in left-center for his fourth home run in five games.

Ludwick is hitting .529 (9-for-17) with six RBI over those five contests.

Despite the offense from Ludwick, St. Louis struggled in the clutch, stranding 10 runners over the final seven innings. The Cardinals also went hitless in their final eight at-bats with runners in scoring position.

"We're hitting well, but we should have made more of our chances today," Ludwick said.

The rally by Milwaukee spoiled another solid outing by Lohse, who was looking to start the season at 3-0 for the first time since beginning his career with three consecutive wins for Minnesota in 2001. The righthander finished with two runs and five hits allowed in seven innings, striking out three.

"He pitched really well," La Russa said. "They just kept plugging and broke through. It was a game where runs and hits were hard to come by - we just didn't generate a lot."

Yet, Lohse helped his cause at the plate, delivering a two-run single off rookie starter Manny Parra in the fourth inning for a 3-0 lead.