ST. LOUIS (AP) — William Contreras homered and Tyrone Taylor scored twice and drove in a run as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-3 on Tuesday night.
Milwaukee stopped a two-game skid and reduced its magic number to clinch the NL Central to six.
Richie Palacios homered for the last-place Cardinals, who were eliminated from playoff contention.
Contreras’ solo homer in the third snapped a 16-inning scoring drought for Milwaukee.
The Brewers opened the fourth with four straight doubles. Willy Adames, Josh Donaldson, Taylor and Sal Frelick all doubled and scored to give Milwaukee a 5-2 lead.
Taylor also walked twice and scored on Andruw Monasterio's sacrifice fly in the eighth. Contreras scored on Adames' single in the ninth to pad the Brewers’ lead.
Colin Rea (6-6), recalled Monday from Triple-A Nashville, allowed one run in 4 2/3 innings of relief. He allowed three hits, walked three and struck out two.
Trevor Megill served as the opener for the Brewers, giving up two runs in one inning. Hoby Milner, Abner Uribe, Joel Payamps and Andrew Chafin combined for three scoreless innings of relief.
Drew Rom (1-3) allowed five runs in 3 1/3 innings as the Cardinals had their two-game winning streak snapped. He gave up six hits, walked two and struck out three.
Alec Burleson doubled home Lars Nootbaar, stole third and scored on Nolan Arenado's sacrifice fly to give St. Louis a 2-0 lead in the first. Palacios added a solo home run in the fifth.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Brewers: OF Christian Yelich (stiff back) missed his fourth straight game and 10th in the past 11, but showed enough improvement to avoid being placed on the injured list. He is day-to-day.
Cardinals: Burleson was replaced at first base by Luken Baker in the second inning after Burleson broke his left thumb sliding into third in the bottom of the first.
UP NEXT
Brewers RHP Adrian Houser (6-4, 4.53 ERA) starts Wednesday night against Cardinals LHP Zack Thompson (5-6, 4.34).
Houser is 4-5 with a 3.19 ERA in 14 career games (11 starts) versus St. Louis, and the Brewers are 12-6 when he starts this season. Thompson will make his first career start against Milwaukee, but he is 3-0 with a 4.24 ERA in three starts this season against NL Central teams.
