Brewers boost playoff hopes with 5-1 victory over Cardinals

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Brandon Woodruff struck out 10 over six scoreless innings and Devin Williams delivered four big outs late to boost the Milwaukee Brewers' playoff hopes with a 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night.

The victory, Milwaukee's first since last Saturday at Cincinnati, combined with the Phillies' loss to the Cubs in Chicago moved the Brewers within a half-game of Philadelphia for the third and final NL wild-card spot with seven to play.

"It's big," Woodruff said. "We just need to keep handling our business and winning games. We're aware of what's going on, we're just trying to continue playing good baseball."

Woodruff (13-4) was only at 98 pitches when Matt Bush took over to start the seventh. The move backfired immediately when Andrew Knizner led off the inning with his second homer in two days to make it a 2-1 game.

After Ben DeLuzio followed with a double, Bush walked Brendan Donovan before getting his first out of the inning when Dylan Carlson grounded out to first.

Milwaukee then turned to Williams, who intentionally walked pinch-hitter Lars Nootbaar to load the bases and got out of the jam when Juan Yepez grounded into a double play.

"We definitely had some opportunities," Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. "We had some people on base, we just didn't drive them in."

Williams came up big again in the eighth, stranding runners at the corners with back-to-back strikeouts of Knizner and DeLuzio.

"Devin was awesome tonight," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "We talked a little bit before the game about the urgency of the situation and frankly, that was not the situation I was envisioning, but he did a heck of a job.”