ST. LOUIS – The Milwaukee Brewers hit six doubles en route to a 7-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis got off to a quick start off of opener Trevor Megill. Before leaving the game with a fractured finger, Alec Burleson hit a ground-rule double to plate Lars Nootbaar and put the Redbirds up 1-0. Later in the inning, Nolan Arenado skied a sacrifice fly to score Burleson and double the lead to 2-0.
Milwaukee replied in the third when William Contreras hit his 17th home run to cut the gap down to 2-1. In the fourth, Willy Adames led off with a double. Josh Donaldson followed with a double of his own to tie the game at 2-2. The next batter, Tyrone Taylor yanked the third consecutive two-bagger to give the Brewers a 3-2 lead. Sal Frelick nailed the fourth straight double to bring around Taylor and double the advantage to 4-2. After Drew Rom exited the game for the Cardinals, Mark Canha welcomed reliever Jake Woodford with an RBI ground-out to score Frelick.
With St. Louis trailing 5-2 in the fifth inning, Richie Palacios hit his fifth long ball to cut the gap down to 5-3. The Brewers got that run back in the eighth off of an Andruw Monasterio sacrifice fly that drove in Taylor.
After Megill allowed two runs in his only inning of work, Colin Rea tossed the next 4.2 innings, allowed one run and earned his sixth win. Hoby Milner relieved Rea and retired Nootbaar, the only hitter he faced. Abner Uribe was tasked with the seventh and despite allowing Paul Goldschmidt to reach second, he kept a clean sheet. Joel Payamps threw a clean eighth and Andrew Chafin tossed a shutout ninth stanza.
For the Cardinals, Rom took his third loss of the season after tossing 3.1 frames and conceding five runs. Woodford followed and spun 2.2 shutout innings. Drew VerHagen took over with a single inning of work where he allowed one run. Andre Pallante and Casey Lawrence each pitched an inning and allowed zero and one run respectively.
With the Brewers win, the Cubs win and the Reds shutout loss to Minnesota, Milwaukee’s magic number for the National League Central shrinks to six.
The Brewers go for their second in a row tomorrow as they try to reduce the magic number to five. Adrian Houser (6-4, 4.53) takes the hill against Zack Thompson (5-6, 4.34). First pitch is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. CT.
Brew October is presented by Network Health Wisconsin
