William Contreras homered and Tyrone Taylor scored twice and drove in a run as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-3 on Tuesday night.
Milwaukee stopped a two-game skid and reduced its magic number to clinch the NL Central to six. The Brewers hold a six-game lead over the Chicago Cubs with 11 to play.
Richie Palacios homered for the last-place Cardinals, who were eliminated from playoff contention.
Contreras’ solo homer in the third snapped a 16-inning scoring drought for Milwaukee.
Drew Rom (1-3) allowed five runs in 3 1/3 innings as the Cardinals had their two-game winning streak snapped. He gave up six hits, walked two and struck out three.
Alec Burleson doubled home Lars Nootbaar, stole third and scored on Nolan Arenado’s sacrifice fly to give St. Louis a 2-0 lead in the first. Palacios added a solo home run in the fifth.
Brewers RHP Adrian Houser (6-4, 4.53 ERA) starts Wednesday night against Cardinals LHP Zack Thompson (5-6, 4.34).
Houser is 4-5 with a 3.19 ERA in 14 career games (11 starts) versus St. Louis, and the Brewers are 12-6 when he starts this season.
Thompson will make his first career start against Milwaukee, but he is 3-0 with a 4.24 ERA in three starts this season against NL Central teams.
