Brewers surge toward top of NL East
12-4 victory over St. Louis Cardinals pushes Milwaukee to within half a game of Cubs
ST. LOUIS — Christian Yelich homered and drove in six runs as the surging Milwaukee Brewers dented St. Louis’ playoff chances with a 12-4 victory over the Cardinals on Tuesday night.
Ryan Braun went deep twice and Jesus Aguilar also connected as Milwaukee won for the fifth time in six games and moved within one-half game of the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs. Manny Pina had two hits and drove in a run, and pitcher Gio Gonzalez contributed an RBI single for just his fourth hit of the season.
The Cardinals (87-71) fell one-half game behind the Colorado Rockies (87-70), who beat Philadelphia 10-3, for the second NL wild card. Milwaukee (91-67) leads Colorado by 3½ games for the top wild card.
Following Wednesday’s series finale, Milwaukee closes the regular season with a weekend set at home against lowly Detroit. St. Louis also is off Thursday before beginning a three-game series against the slumping Cubs at Wrigley Field.
Yadier Molina hit a three-run homer off Gonzalez for the Cardinals, who had won six of seven before their 6-4 loss to Milwaukee on Monday night. Marcell Ozuna went 3 for 3 with a walk.
At Chicago, slugger Kris Bryant exited with a bruised left wrist, Mike Montgomery got hit hard over four-plus innings and the Cubs stumbled again in their playoff drive with a 6-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Cubs missed a chance to clinch a franchise-record fourth straight trip to the post-season for the second time in as many nights. Chicago needed a win plus a loss by Colorado to Philadelphia to secure a playoff spot and extend a run that includes a drought-ending World Series championship in 2016. But the Cubs lost for the fourth time in sixth games while the Rockies won 10-3.
Bryant got struck by a pitch from Chris Archer (3-3) in the fourth inning and was replaced at third base in the sixth by Ian Happ, who had pinch hit in the fifth.
At Denver, David Dahl homered for a second straight night, a three-run shot in the third and the Colorado Rockies vaulted into the final NL wild-card spot by beating the Phillies.
Colorado trailed the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers by 1½ games entering the night and still has a chance to win its first division title. The Rockies have five games remaining.
Charlie Blackmon extended his hitting streak to 17 straight games with two hits and pinch-hitter Carlos Gonzalez added a two-run double. The Rockies scored eight of their 10 runs with two outs.
The game-changing hit was delivered by Dahl, who lined a fastball from Vince Velasquez (9-12) to left for his 12th homer, nearly to the same spot where Dahl hit a two-run homer the previous night. Dahl added a run-scoring single as part of a 3-for-5, 4-RBI evening.
At St. Petersburg, Fla., struggling Gary Sanchez drove in four runs for the first time since early April, Luis Severino won his 19th game and the New York Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 9-2 to keep up their push for home-field advantage in the AL wild card game.
Sanchez had been 10 for 66 (.152) since returning Sept. 1 from a groin strain and 1 for his last 28, dropping his average to .180.
He hit a three-run homer off Jalen Beeks in a seven-run third inning, his first long ball since Sept. 10, and added an RBI single in the fifth.
Severino (19-8) is competing with Masahiro Tanaka and J.A. Happ to start in the Oct. 3 wild card game, most likely against Oakland. The Yankees began the night 11/2 games ahead of the Athletics for home-field advantage.