Less than a week after pounding out seven hits for seven runs in the seventh inning of a comeback win in Atlanta, the Cardinals have seen that inning become the bane of their existence against a surging Brewers club that has thrashed them over three straight games.

After the Cardinals had surged to within a run of the lead, Milwaukee scored seven times in Game 2’s seventh inning to cruise to a 10-2 defeat of St. Louis at Busch Stadium.

The Brewers scored four times in the seventh on Monday to wipe out a 3-0 deficit and they scored once in the seventh inning of Tuesday’s first game to edge the Cards 4-3.

Milwaukee’s doubleheader sweep on Tuesday gave it the series win and pushed its streak of consecutive wins against the Cardinals to six in seven meetings this season.

Monday’s seventh-inning damage came against struggling reliever Ryan Fernandez, who was optioned to Triple-A Memphis on Tuesday. Bruce Zimmermann, who allowed three earned runs in five innings of work in Game 1, was designated for assignment between games of the split doubleheader. Jared Shuster, who allowed seven runs in the night game’s seventh inning, has already been designated for assignment twice this season by the Cardinals and a third DFA could be coming soon.

Cardinals' manager Oliver Marmol said valuing the health of fatigued relievers JoJo Romero and George Soriano and doing everything within his power to protect the well-being of starters Michael McGreevy and Andre Pallante was more important to him than losing two more games to the Brewers.

"There's a lot of moving parts to where our pitching is at at the moment with giving Soriano and JoJo multiple days prior to them throwing and with us pushing McGreevy and Pallante back and giving them an extra day or rest and to recover," Marmol said to reporters after the ugly loss. "The main filter is just keeping them healthy. Part of the game within the game is health, and we can't afford to lose guys.

"We have to be able to honor how they are feeling, and that's a big part of this. In that game, you want to mix and match, you get a two-run homer and you're within one, but you can't and you just have to ride it out. We didn't have a lot of guys (available), and that's unfortunate, but it's the reality of today if we're going to stick to keeping these guys in a good spot (health-wise). It's not ideal, but it's what was needed today."

The Cardinals decided last weekend to push McGreevy’s start back a day, leaving them scrambling for pitching in Tuesday’s doubleheader. Reliever Matt Svanson operated in an “opener” role in Game 1 before giving way to Zimmermann after one inning.

In the nightcap, Hunter Dobbins was promoted from Triple-A Memphis for the start and he limited the Brewers to four hits and three earned runs over five innings of work. Shuster fell apart in his second inning of work and the Cardinals were summarily thrashed. Shuster allowed a homer, a double, three singles and two walks in another forgettable seventh inning.

Infielder/outfielder Bryan Torres, who spent 11 years in the Minor League and Independent Leagues to get to MLB, pitched two scoreless innings to close out the laugher.

Nelson Velazquez smashed a two-run homer in the sixth inning to get the Cardinals within 3-2 of the Brewers. The homer left Velazquez’s bat at 110.4 mph and it traveled 403 feet. Velazquez, who has feasted on left-handed pitching since his promotion from Triple-A Memphis, now had four homers and 12 RBI this season.

Jordan Walker, who hit his 21st homer of the season in Game 1 against fellow All-Star Jacob MIsiorowski, added two singles in the nightcap.

Robert Gasser pitched 7 2/3 innings, while allowing four hits and two earned runs. He struck out four while walking one.   

Remember to join our CARDINALS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other CARDINALS fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!