Adrian Houser left with an injury, the offense sputtered, and the Cardinals bats were on fire in the St. Louis victory over Milwaukee on Tuesday night at AmFam Field.
The Cardinals scored early and often on Tuesday night. In the first inning, Paul Goldschmidt drove in Brendan Donovan with a sacrifice-fly to give St. Louis the early 1-0 lead.
In the second inning, Dylan Carlson scored on a wild pitch. The Cardinals led 2-0 after two innings.
In the top of the fourth inning, Adrian Houser left with a right groin strain. Brent Suter relieved him and gave up a two-run home run to Andrew Knizner. That extended the lead for St. Louis to 4-0.
The Cardinals tacked on runs in the fifth and sixth inning to open up a 6-0 lead.
The Brewers got on the board in the sixth inning when Rowdy Tellez hit his 34th home run of the season. That made the score 6-1.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Garrett Mitchell drove in Keston Hiura to cut the deficit to 6-2.
That would be the final score as the St. Louis Cardinals clinched the NL Central with a 6-2 win in Milwaukee.
The Phillies also lost on Tuesday night, which means Milwaukee still trails Philadelphia by 1.5 games in the NL Wild Card Race. However, in reality they trail by 2.5 games because the Phillies own the tiebreaker over Milwaukee.
The Brewers will try to split the series with the Cardinals on Wednesday night at 6:40pm at American Family Field. Listen to the Baseball Postgame Show with Tim Allen immediately following the game on 97.3 The Game.