MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Milwaukee Brewers clinched the NL Central title for the third time in six seasons Tuesday night, despite a 4-1 loss to the last-place St. Louis Cardinals and with the help of a come-from-behind win by the Atlanta Braves.
Milwaukee clinched its second division crown in three seasons when the Chicago Cubs dropped a 7-6 decision to the Braves. Atlanta overcame a six-run deficit to eliminate the wild-card contending Cubs from the division race.
The Milwaukee crowd roared as the ninth inning of the Cubs-Braves game was shown on the scoreboard.
The Brewers had clinched no worse than a wild-card berth on Friday, with a 16-1 win over the Marlins in Miami. But they missed two chances to clinch the division title by losing to Miami on Saturday and Sunday, scoring a total of five runs in those two games.
St. Louis starter Miles Mikolas (8-13) allowed one run and five hits in seven innings. He struck out five batters and walked two, throwing 101 pitches.
Mikolas had given up five earned runs in five innings in his previous start, a loss to the Brewers in St. Louis.
Milwaukee took a 1-0 lead in the third inning. Christian Yelich, who walked, scored on a double by Carlos Santana. But William Contreras, who singled in the fifth, was the only other baserunner for the rest of the game.
Milwaukee batted 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position.
Ryan Helsley struck out all three batters in the ninth inning for his 13th save.
Milwaukee starter Adrian Houser (7-5) retired the first nine batters, then allowed four runs.
The Cardinals took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning on a double by Richie Palacios. They extended their lead to 4-1 in the fifth following a two-base error by second baseman Brice Turang.
After Andrew Knizner walked, José Fermín hit a grounder that Turang tried to glove while touching second base with his foot. The ball got past him into center field and Knizner advanced to third base.
Knizner scored on Masyn Winn’s sacrifice fly, but centerfielder Sal Frelick threw out Fermin at third. Tommy Edman followed with a solo home run, his 13th.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cardinals: LHP JoJo Romero (knee tendinitis), who went on the injured list on Sept. 4, won’t be with the team in Milwaukee, manager Oliver Marmol said.
Brewers: Placed RHP Trevor Megill on the paternity list and recalled RHP Colin Rea from Triple-A Nashville.
’UP NEXT
The second of the three-game series pits Brewers LHP Wade Miley (9-4, 3.20 ERA) against Cardinals LHP Zack Thompson (5-7, 4.57 ERA).
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
Tom Kertscher, The Associated Press
