Cardinals claw past Brewers in 9th for DH split

[September 15, 2020]  Paul DeJong delivered an RBI single in the ninth inning for his third hit of the game, and the visiting St. Louis Cardinals earned a split of a doubleheader against the Milwaukee Brewers with a 3-2 win Monday in the nightcap.

The Cardinals (21-21), playing five games in Milwaukee over three days, bounced back after dropping the opener 2-1 in eight innings. St. Louis stranded 14 runners in the second game, but DeJong drove in a run when it mattered with his single to left.

With St. Louis down 2-1 in the top of the seventh, Paul Goldschmidt opened the frame with a double down the right field line and scored on Brad Miller's single to left to force extra innings.

Milwaukee (21-25), two games behind the second-place Cardinals in the NL Central, stranded the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth and left a man on third in the ninth.

After three scoreless innings to start the second game of the doubleheader, Milwaukee broke through in the fourth. Daniel Vogelbach dropped a two-out single into left field, and then Jedd Gyorko, who spent parts of four seasons with St. Louis, drove the ball well over the left-center-field wall to give the Brewers a 2-0 lead.

The homer was Gyorko's eighth of the year.

St. Louis got a run back in the fifth. Tyler O'Neill's slowly-hit infield single to shortstop brought home a run, but that was all the Cardinals could muster before leaving the bases loaded.

Cardinals pitcher Kwang-Hyun Kim (33) reacts after throwing a pitch in the first inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

As in the opener, both teams got strong starting pitching.

Milwaukee's Corbin Burnes allowed his first earned run in four starts, but he yielded just that one tally while allowing five hits and three walks over 4 2/3 innings. He struck out 10.

St. Louis got a gem from Daniel Ponce de Leon, who pitched into six-plus innings, allowing the Gyorko homer, three other hits and one walk while fanning nine.

--Field Level Media

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