Miles Mikolas allowed two runs in five innings and the visiting St. Louis Cardinals held on for a 3-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday to avoid a sweep in the three-game series.
Milwaukee (91-59), which clinched a playoff berth Saturday and owns the best overall record in the majors, saw its NL Central lead trimmed to 5 1/2 games over the Cubs after their win over Tampa Bay.
St Louis (73-77), which snapped a five-game losing streak, entered Sunday four games back in the chase for the final wild card spot.
Mikolas (8-10) allowed two runs on a pair of solo homers, scattering five hits with five strikeouts and no walks. John King, Jorge Alcala and JoJo Romero combined for three scoreless innings. Riley O’Brien fanned two in the ninth to claim his fourth save in seven opportunities.
The Cardinals tagged Jose Quintana (11-7) for three runs in the second. Thomas Saggese singled to open the inning and Nolan Gorman doubled. Saggese scored on Pedro Pages’ sacrifice fly. Jordan Walker walked and Jose Fermin followed with an RBI single to make it 2-0. After Walker and Fermin executed a double steal, Nathan Church delivered a run-scoring single.
Caleb Durbin put the Brewers on the board in the fourth with his 11th homer, a two-out solo shot to left.
Danny Jansen opened the fifth with his 12th homer, which marked his first in 18 games with Milwaukee since being acquired from Tampa Bay in late July.
The Brewers had two aboard with one out in the sixth, but failed to capitalize.
Quintana allowed three runs on four hits in four innings, striking out two and walking two.
