By MATT PIKE
The St. Louis Cardinals continued to slide down the National League Central standings, dropping a divisional series with the Milwaukee Brewers with a 3-2 loss on Sunday afternoon on the road.
The Cardinals opened the scoring first in the top of the fourth inning, Brendan Donovan scoring on a groundout by Willson Contreras. But in the bottom half of the inning, the Brewers took the lead, first tying the game on a leadoff home run by Christian Yelich, before later in the inning getting the lead on a sacrifice fly by Drew Avans bringing home Rhys Hoskins for the 2-1 lead.
A groundout by Sal Frelick in the seventh inning drove in Caleb Durbin for the final run the Brewers needed in the game. The Cardinals did try to rally back, getting a solo home run by Iván Herrera in the eighth inning. Alec Burleson followed the home run with a ground rule double, but the inning ended on a strike out by Contreras. In the ninth, St. Louis got back to back singles by Nolan Arenado and Nolan Gorman, but then Jordan Walker, Victor Scott, and Masyn Winn all struck out to end the game.
Miles Mikolas took the loss, falling to 4-4 on the season, pitching six innings and giving up two runs on six hits, striking out seven and walkign one. At the plate, Herrera was 2-for-4 with the home run. Donovan and Gorman were also 2-for-4.
St. Louis is off on Monday. They travel to Chicago on Tuesday to face the White Sox. Matthew LIberatore (3-6, 4.17 ERA) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Shane Smith (3-3, 2.37 ERA) for the White Sox. First pitch is at 6:40pm, pregame will be joined at 6:30 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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