Brewers Beat Cardinals as Priester Shines Yelich Homers

Brewers Top Cardinals Behind Priester, Yelich’s Blast

ST. LOUIS – Quinn Priester continued his dominant run on the mound, and Christian Yelich delivered a towering home run as the Milwaukee Brewers rolled past the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night.

Priester (13-2) gave up just two runs on five hits across six strong innings, extending his franchise record with 12 consecutive winning decisions over his last 20 outings. He walked one and struck out five.

Yelich provided the knockout blow in the seventh, crushing his 28th homer of the season — a two-run, 432-foot shot to straightaway center off reliever Jorge Alcala — to give Milwaukee a commanding 7-2 lead.

The Brewers (90-58), who own the best record in the majors, maintained their 5 1/2-game cushion atop the NL Central over the Chicago Cubs, who beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-4. The Cardinals (72-76), meanwhile, dropped their fourth straight and fell four games out of the final wild-card spot.

Andre Pallante (6-14) retired the first six batters on groundouts but unraveled in the third. Three walks, a bunt single, and a costly throwing error by right fielder Jordan Walker opened the door for a four-run Brewers rally. Joey Ortiz’s bunt set the table, Sal Frelick forced in a run with a walk, Jackson Chourio added a sacrifice fly, and Brice Turang capped the inning with a fielder’s choice RBI.

Milwaukee padded its lead in the fourth when Isaac Collins singled and later scored on Jake Bauers’ double.

The Cardinals briefly showed life in the sixth. Ivan Herrera was hit by a pitch, Alec Burleson tripled on a misplay in center by Chourio, and Lars Nootbaar followed with an RBI single to make it 5-2. But the Brewers’ bullpen held firm, and Yelich’s blast sealed the win.

Pallante finished with five innings of work, giving up five runs — four earned — on four hits, while walking four and failing to record a strikeout.