Benes’ One Mistake Costs Cardinals, 1-0

MILWAUKEE —  There were only two really bad pitches at County Stadium on Monday night: the one that started the evening and the one that ended it.

Jeromy Burnitz homered off Alan Benes with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving Milwaukee a 1-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Bud Selig, baseball’s acting commissioner and the owner of the Brewers, badly misfired the ceremonial pitch that commemorated the first interleague game at County Stadium.

“I haven’t practiced my pitching. I’ve been too busy,” said Selig, under whose stewardship interleague play was introduced last week.

Selig’s pitch bounced 20 feet short of home plate--and 20 feet wide. Benes’ fateful pitch wasn’t nearly as bad, but it was equally embarrassing.

“It was a fastball away,” he said. “He’s a hitter that gets right on the plate. . . . That’s a good pitch to a lot of guys, but probably not a real good pitch to throw to him.”

The ball traveled 410 feet directly to center field, and it was the only pitch a Brewer hit hard all night.

Brewer ace Ben McDonald gave up four hits in eight innings and struck out 12, including the side in the seventh inning. Seventy of his 105 pitches were strikes. But he had nothing to show for it.

“I feel like I’m pitching as good as I can pitch right now,” said McDonald, who has given up only seven earned runs in his last five starts but has only one victory over that span.

The pitchers had the definite advantage in a game between the teams that squared off in the 1982 World Series. There were only nine hits and 23 strikeouts.

Benes (6-6) matched his personal best with 11 strikeouts, which he also accomplished in an 8-3 victory at San Diego last Wednesday. He gave up four hits with three walks.

He held the Brewers hitless until Gerald Williams singled to right with two outs in the fifth inning. Benes struck out Mark Loretta leading off the ninth before Burnitz homered.

“I wanted to get it off the plate a little bit and definitely not throw it thigh-high,” Benes said.