ST. LOUIS — Turns out the best way to cool a broiling offense is to douse it with some heat.

A day after the Cardinals peppered his teammate with 10 hits, five doubles and seven runs, Houston Astros starter Hunter Brown sped through St. Louis' lineup. With a one-two punch of a fastball that touched 99.1 mph and a sinker that scurried off his fingers at 98.1 mph, Brown pitched six scoreless innings.

The Cardinals found singles through seams and a double via a bloop, but they could not generate the breakthrough hit in a 2-0 loss Tuesday night at Busch Stadium.

A tight game that featured a handful of quality defensive plays – none better than Erick Fedde’s finishing a double play on a laser back at him – hinged around two of the few extra-base hits in the evening. Jeremy Pena’s leadoff double in the sixth led to the lone run against Fedde, and Yordan Alvarez doubled the lead with his solo homer in the eighth inning. A crowd of 22,285 saw the Cardinals shut out for the first time this season.

Former Brewers’ closer Josh Hader dashed off a scoreless ninth for his fourth save.

What Brown did for them

In his first regular-season start against the Cardinals, Brown (2-1) gave a long look at what the American League saw throughout the second half of this past season.

The 26-year-old right-hander had a 2.31 ERA to go with a 10-4 record in his final 20 starts of 2024. Through his first three starts of this season, Brown was 1-1 with a 2.00 ERA. His 103 strikeouts against left-handed batters tied for the most in the AL this past season, and when he rolled through the middle of the game, that’s what he did – struck out lefties. Brown struck out Nolan Gorman with two runners in scoring position to end any threat the Cardinals mustered in the fourth inning.

Brown struck out the side in order in the fifth inning, and in that cluster of three Cardinals was left-handed batters Lars Nootbaar and Michael Siani.

It took Brown 18 pitches to get three strikeouts in the fifth.

He fell behind 3-0 to the Cardinals’ leadoff hitter Nootbaar and then came back for the strikeout with three consecutive sinkers, each faster than the previous one. Nootbaar took a 95-mph sinker, missed a 95.8-mph sinker and then struck out on a 96.7-mph sinker.

All four of his strikeouts in the game came were consecutive.

In the past four games, the Cardinals have faced two sinkers from the left, including Astros’ Framber Valdez on Monday, and Brown came from the right, just with more zip. He got 10 of his other 14 outs without the ball leaving the infield.

The Cardinals were not entirely new to see Brown, as the right-hander faced them twice at the beginning of this year’s exhibition season in Florida. They struggled to get solid contact on either of his fastballs.

Fedde flips sizzler into double play

The same inning that Houston snapped the scoreless tie, Fedde (1-2) robbed them of potentially more with a play that started as self-preservation, involved juggling and ended with a double play.

A leadoff double and a flair to right field that Jordan Walker could only smother, not catch, yielded Houston’s first run. Jake Meyers hit the RBI single, and Jeremy Pena outran Walker’s throw home for the 1-0 lead.

With one out and Fedde’s pitch count climbing toward 100, Houston had its next best chance to add on to that lead. They even got the hard contact, too. Rookie Cam Smith, the prospect Houston got from the Cubs in the Kyle Tucker trade, drilled a cutter back from whence it came – right at Fedde. The liner left Smith’s bat at 99.9 mph, and it hadn’t slowed much by the time Fedde got his glove on it.

When Fedde reached to regain his balance, the ball leapt out of his glove and still he had the footing to recover it, control it and complete the double play with a toss to first.

The outs came on Fedde’s 96th and final pitch of the evening.

Fedde allowed one run on six hits, and he struck out five for his third quality start of the season. The Cardinals’ starting staff has provided three consecutive quality starts ahead of Wednesday’s shift to a six-man rotation with Steven Matz’s first start of the season. Five of the past six games and four of the five in this home stand have been quality starts.

Donovan keeps streak chugging

With a flair to right-center field that dropped between three converging Astros, Brendan Donovan extended the longest active hitting streak in the majors to 11 games. His streak is the second time this season that a Cardinal had the longest active streak going, picking up just as Nolan Arenado’s ended.

When he reached base, Donovan was 21 for 41 during the streak, or batting .512.

Donovan’s double led off the fourth inning, and two batters later Alec Burleson moved him to third with a one-out single. That was as far as Donovan got in the inning as Brown struck out Gorman with two runners in scoring position to end the inning. Through four innings, the Cardinals stranded four batters, all of them in scoring position. Two other baserunners were erased on double plays.

Astros aren’t biting

Twice in the early innings the Cardinals had runners at the corners and tried to lure Houston into a play that would escort the runner from third home.

With two outs in the first inning and Nootbaar at third, Arenado broke from first in an apparent attempt to steal second. Houston catcher Yainer Diaz unfolded from his crouch and took a look at Arenado, who slowed to a trot a good distance from second. He wanted to invite Diaz’s throw and a potential rundown that would let Nootbaar attempt to score. Diaz didn’t go for the out and let Arenado have the steal, his first of the season.

The steal could have bitten the Astros with a base hit, but Brown got a popup behind the plate from Burleson to end the inning.

In the fourth, Burleson was the Cardinal at first base with two outs and Donovan at third. Burleson broke as if to steal second, and still Diaz wasn’t buying it. Like Arenado, Burleson slowed ahead of arriving at second – one last deke to get the throw through and the chance for Donovan to break for home. The goal is to create havoc and swipe a run. Diaz let Burleson have the bag and trusted Brown to not let it bite them.

It didn’t.

Gorman nicked a 98.4 fastball and struck out to end the inning.

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