The St. Louis Cardinals fell to the Milwaukee Brewers in the first game of a crucial three-game series that pits the National League Central's top two contenders against one-another at Miller Park, losing by a score of 6-2 after Chris Carpenter was undermined by one bad inning. Rafael Furcal singled and walked in his debut as the Cardinals' leadoff hitter and starting shortstop, scoring in the first inning when Matt Holliday, who went 2-3, homered against Zack Greinke.
The Cardinals fall to 3.5 games back with their loss Monday; they'll throw Jaime Garcia and Edwin Jackson at Shaun Marcum and Randy Wolf in the last two games of the series before heading to Miami to face Anibal Sanchez and the Florida Marlins for the rest of the week.
Fellow trade deadline acquisition Octavio Dotel pitched a scoreless inning with one strikeout in relief of Carpenter. Greinke, off to a hot start after the All-Star Break, improved to 9-4 with an ERA of 4.41.