Errors on defense are always frustrating, but they proved to be particularly costly on Wednesday for the St. Louis Cardinals in a 4-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. Cardinals shortstop Rafael Furcal made a pair of painful errors in the first inning of Wednesday's game, allowing Milwaukee to take a lead that it would never relinquish.
The Cardinals' defense was shaky from the beginning on Wednesday, as Brewers lead-off hitter Norichika Aoki reached base on a fielding error from Furcal. The Cardinals' shortstop would only compound that issue later in the inning with Milwaukee already leading 2-0, when a two-out throwing error would allow two additional runs to score.
Trailing 4-0 early, the Cardinals needed a quality performance from their offense, but they didn't get it on Wednesday despite facing struggling young starter Tyler Thornburg. Thornburg managed to allow just two runs over 4.2 innings, at which point the bullpen came in and finished off the remainder of the game.
St. Louis really threatened in the top of the ninth inning, but Francisco Rodriguez managed to end the scare before blowing the lead. K-Rod gave up a bases loaded walk with two outs in the ninth to cut Milwaukee's lead to a single run, but he got Lance Berkman to fly out for the game's final out.
Beyond the Cardinals' late rally in the ninth inning, the team's first two runs were scored on a pair of solo homers from David Freese and Allen Craig.
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