MILWAUKEE – Tyrone Taylor hit two home runs as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 8-2. Josh Donaldson opened the scoring in the first with a three-run home run to put the Crew up 3-0. The Cardinals replied in the bottom half off of a Paul Goldschmidt RBI-single to score Lars Nootbaar. With the score at 3-1 in the fourth, Taylor hit his eighth long ball of the season to increase the lead to 4-1.
In the eighth, Joel Payamps retired the first two batters before three straight Cardinals reached base including Richie Palacios, who cut the gap down to 4-2 with an RBI-single that plated Jordan Walker. The Crew got the run back with two outs in the ninth inning courtesy of Taylor’s second solo shot of the night to put Milwaukee up 5-2. It was Taylor’s fourth career multi-home run game. Later in the frame with the bases loaded, Mark Canha cleared the bases with a double to put the game out of reach at 8-2.
Adrian Houser earned his seventh win of the season after tossing six innings and allowing one run. Brice Wilson came on in relief and pitched a shutout inning. Joel Payamps followed and retired the first two batters in the eighth before conceding a run off of three straight baserunners. Payamps allowed one run in the eighth inning. J.B. Bukauskas finished the job with a clean ninth.
For St. Louis, Zack Thompson took his seventh loss after he conceded four runs over five innings of work. Jacob Barnes took over with a pair of shutout innings. Casey Lawrence faced the Brewers for the second straight game and allowed four runs over two innings.
With the win, a Reds loss and a Cubs loss, the Brewers’ magic number to clinch the National League Central shrinks to four.
Milwaukee goes for the series win tomorrow. Wade Miley (8-4, 3.38) takes the hill against Miles Mikolas (7-12, 4.84). First pitch is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. CT.
Brew October is presented by Network Health Wisconsin
