The Brewers scored in each of the last four innings to pull out a 6-4 win over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The win ensures Milwaukee will leave St. Louis later this week with the top Wild Card spot. The Cards scored three runs in the sixth on homers by Jose Martínez and Marcell Ozuna. The Redbirds hold the second wild-card spot but are just a half-game ahead of the Colorado Rockies.
There was a stretch where the young arms of the Cardinals lost their control and walks came back to bite them.
Milwaukee took a 3-1 lead in the sixth when starter Jack Flaherty ran out of gas. With one out, Flaherty walked Christian Yelich, hit a batter and then walked David Shaw. Mike Shildt turned to Dakota Hudson who walked Ryan Braun on four straight pitches. After getting ahead 0-2 on Mike Moustakas, Hudson enticed a flyball to left field on a 3-2 count with the second run scoring before Shaw was thrown out between second and third to end the inning.
After Jose Martinez and Marcell Ozuna hit homers off Milwaukee’s Josh Hader to put St. Louis on top 4-3, Jordan Hicks had command issues walking Lorenzo Cain and Curtis Granderson to load the bases with one out. Hicks got a fielder’s choice and held the damage to just one run keeping the game tied at 4-4.
Then the defense fell apart. Eric Thames scored the go-ahead run on an eighth-inning throwing error from Bud Norris. Thames reached third on a poorly fielded hit to Martinez in right. Norris threw an errant pickoff attempt on the slow running Moustakas, allowing Thames to score from third. In the ninth, Yelich doubled home Cain for the insurance run.
