Cardinals beat Brewers to win NL Central

[September 28, 2022] Miles Mikolas allowed one run over six innings and Andrew Knizner had a two-run homer as the visiting St. Louis Cardinals clinched the National League Central title with a 6-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night.

The victory gives the Cardinals (90-65) the season series against the Brewers (82-72) and the tiebreaker in the division. St. Louis leads Milwaukee by 7 1/2 games.

Milwaukee remained 1 1/2 games behind Philadelphia (83-70) for the final wild-card spot as the Phillies lost to the Cubs, 2-1. The Brewers play their final eight games at home, while Philadelphia plays its final nine on the road.

Mikolas (12-13) allowed four hits, including Rowdy Tellez's solo homer with one out in the sixth. He struck out nine and walked one.

The Brewers got a run off Andre Pallante in the seventh on a walk and two singles. Ryan Helsley finished with two scoreless innings.

Milwaukee starter Adrian Houser (6-10) exited while facing the second hitter in the fourth inning with a right groin strain, the Brewers announced. With two outs, Knizner's drive off Brent Suter just cleared the wall in center for his third homer to make it 4-0.

The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead in the first when Brendan Donovan opened with a double to center, advanced on a groundout and came home on Paul Goldschmidt's sacrifice fly.

St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Dylan Carlson (3) doubles during the second inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

St. Louis added a run in the second when Dylan Carlson doubled with one out, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.

Mikolas retired the first 10 hitters before Willy Adames reached on a one-out infield single. Hunter Renfroe singled and Kolten Wong walked to load the bases with two outs, but Mikolas fanned Keston Hiura.

St. Louis made it 5-0 in the fifth on a double by Lars Nootbaar and Goldschmidt's RBI single.

Juan Yepez's pinch-hit RBI single put the Cards up 6-0 in the sixth. Tellez answered with his 34th homer in the bottom half.

--Field Level Media

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