Jacob Misiorowski strengthened his Cy Young case, allowing just two hits over five-plus scoreless innings, as the Milwaukee Brewers built momentum for the postseason with a 6-4 victory over the visiting St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday.
Milwaukee (103-59), which has clinched a first-round Wild Card bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, closed with five consecutive wins to extend its franchise record for victories in a season.
Milwaukee, the first team to win four consecutive NL Central titles, finished 35-17 against division rivals and went 18-6 in September.
St. Louis (77-85) scored four runs in the eighth off Chad Patrick to pull within 6-4, capped by Leo Bernal’s three-run homer. Shane Drohan got the final five outs for his second save.
Misiorowski (16-5) allowed two singles in 5 1/3 innings, departing after striking out Jordan Walker in the sixth to end a 68-pitch outing, lowering his major league-leading ERA to 1.80. Misiorowski struck out five and walked two, giving him 252 strikeouts for the year.
Misiorowski is the second Brewers pitcher to lead the league in ERA, joining Corbin Burnes (2021).
Milwaukee bunched six singles off Andre Pallante in the first inning for a 3-0 lead. Garrett Mitchell, Jake Bauers and Jackson Chourio opened with consecutive singles for the first run. Brice Turang reached on a run-scoring infield single, giving him 100 RBIs for the season. Christian Yelich singled in another run.
Gary Sanchez put the Brewers up 5-0 with one out in the third with his 12th home run following a leadoff single by Chourio.
Chourio’s RBI single in the fourth made it 6-0.
St. Louis rallied in the eighth when Cesar Prieto triple to open and Pedro Pages walked. Prieto scored on Jordan Walker’s fielder’s choice grounder. Ivan Herrera walked and Bernal followed with his fifth homer.
Pallante (12-9) allowed six runs on 10 hits in five innings, striking out four and walking one.
St. Louis, which has not made the postseason since 2022 and has not won a playoff series since the NLDS in 2019, was 50-45 at the All-Star break, but went 27-40 the rest of the way.
–Field Level Media
