St. Louis Cardinals news

Corbin Burnes continued his recent mastery of the St. Louis Cardinals, allowing the Milwaukee Brewers to overtake their division rivals for first place in the NL Central. Burnes pitched seven dominant innings and Tyrone Taylor hit a two-run homer in the Brewers’ 2-0 victory over the Cardinals on Monday night. The Brewers and Cardinals were tied for the division lead as they began this four-game series. The Brewers have followed an eight-game skid by winning six of eight. Burnes (5-4) struck out 10 and allowed just two hits and two walks as he delivered an ace-caliber performance to help a staff that’s at far less than full strength with Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta and Aaron Ashby on the injured list. The NL Cy Young Award winner’s performance was remarkably similar to his May 29 outing in an 8-0 victory at St. Louis. In two starts against the Cardinals this season, Burnes has struck out 21 in 14 scoreless innings while allowing four hits and three walks. He posted a 1.64 ERA in 22 innings against the Cardinals last season. The only two hits he allowed Monday came from Juan Yepez, who had a two-out double in the second inning and a two-out single in the seventh. Devin Williams retired the side in order in the eighth and Josh Hader worked the ninth for his 20th save in 21 opportunities. Hader had been reinstated earlier in the day after being with his family last week while his wife gave birth to their son, Lucas Alexander. The Cardinals finished with three hits. Brendan Donovan beat out an infield single to start the ninth but was thrown out attempting to reach second on a pitch that got away. Donovan was tagged on the heel by Brewers second baseman Luis Urías before sliding into the base. Hader then retired Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. Burnes needed to be on top of his game to outduel St. Louis’ Miles Mikolas, who had come one strike away from a no-hitter last Tuesday before allowing a double to Cal Mitchell with two outs in the ninth inning of a 9-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The game was scoreless with each team having only one hit before the Brewers broke through in the bottom of the fifth. After Keston Hiura singled with one out, Taylor hit a 2-2 sinker from Mikolas over the center-field wall. Taylor’s seventh homer of the season traveled an estimated 416 feet. Mikolas lasted 6 1/3 innings and allowed those two runs plus four hits while striking out three and walking two.