Brice Turang’s decisive 10th-inning RBI single lifted the visiting Milwaukee Brewers past the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 Saturday — and pushed them to the brink of another National League Central title.
The magic number for the Brewers (95-60) to win the division is now one. They have a seven-game lead over the second-place Chicago Cubs, who lost their third straight game Saturday.
Milwaukee catcher William Contreras exited the game in the eighth inning. He injured his glove hand earlier in the seventh inning on a catcher’s interference incident.
Brewers starter Chad Patrick allowed two runs on five hits in 4 1/3 innings. He struck out three and walked none.
Reliever Jared Koenig (6-1) pitched two innings and earned the victory.
Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas allowed two runs on seven hits and two walks in five innings. He struck out three.
Reliever JoJo Romero (4-6) took the loss for the Cardinals (75-80), who lost for eighth time in 11 games.
Milwaukee used a two-out rally in the second inning to take a 1-0 lead. Jake Bauers hit a double and scored on Joey Ortiz’s single.
Patrick retired his first 10 batters, then he encountered fourth-inning trouble. Singles by Ivan Herrera, Alec Burleson and Nolan Arenado tied the game 1-1.
The Cardinals moved ahead 2-1 in the fifth inning on singles by Pedro Pages, Jordan Walker and Brendan Donovan.
Milwaukee tied the game 2-2 in the sixth inning. Caleb Durbin hit a leadoff double, took third on a bunt, and scored on Andrew Vaughn’s sacrifice fly.
Arenado and Thomas Saggese hit one-out singles in the bottom of the inning, then Aaron Ashby retired the next two batters to strand them.
After the Brewers moved ahead 3-2 in the top of the 10th inning, designated runner Lars Nootbaar ran into a double play while trying to reach third base on Donovan’s groundout in the bottom of the inning.