Saturday’s Game Report: Brewers 3, Cardinals 2 (10 innings)
By Rob Rains
The Cardinals have something to play for in their final home game of the season on Sunday.
They will need to win, and have the Cubs beat the Reds, if they want to prevent the Brewers from winning the NL Central title and celebrating at Busch Stadium.
The Brewers reduced their magic number for clinching the division title to one over the Cubs with their 10-inning win over the Cardinals on Saturday night.
A two-out single by Bryce Turang drove in the go-ahead run in the 10th and the Cardinals lost a chance to tie the game because of a base-running mistake by Lars Nootbaar in the bottom of the inning.
In what likely was his final career start at home for the Cardinals, Miles Mikolas allowed two runs over five-plus innings. He came out of the game with a 2-1 lead after giving up a leadoff double to Caleb Durbin in the sixth. Durbin, a product of Washington University, later scored the tying run to hand Mikolas a no decision.
Here is how Saturday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: Nolan Arenado drove in the first run for the Cardinals with a single in the fourth, their third consecutive single in the inning … Brendan Donovan drove in the second run with a single in the fifth. Pedro Pages and Jordan Walker singled to open the inning, and Victor Scott II’s successful sacrifice set up the tying hit from Donovan … The Cardinals stranded a runner at second base in the sixth and at third in the seventh … In the 10th, Nootbaar was the automatic runner at second base when Donovan grounded back to the pitcher. Nootbaar was frozen between second and third and after getting the out at first, Nootbaar was thrown out trying to advance to third.
On the mound: Mikolas, who will be a free agent at the end of the season, allowed seven hits in his five innings but was able to strand seven runners … Kyle Leahy relieved in the sixth and gave up a sacrifice fly to Andrew Vaughn … In the 10th, JoJo Romero retired the first two batters before Turang’s go-ahead single.
Key stat: The loss dropped the Cardinals’ record to 75-80 for the season with seven games left to play. They will need to win six of the seven to finish with a .500 record.
Up next: Matthew Liberatore will get the start in the final game of the season at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals will end the year with three games in San Francisco and three against the Cubs in Chicago.
Follow Rob Rains on X @RobRains