Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Kolten Wong (right) initially fails to eject St. Louis Cardinals’ Tommy Edman while Brewers shortstop Willy Adames (27) looks on during the seventh inning of Sunday’s National League Central fight in St. Louis . (Jeff Roberson/AP Photo)
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Albert Pujols hit a homer twice and Miles Mikolas threw eight effective innings to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-3 on Sunday.
Dylan Carlson and Tyler O’Neill also scored for St. Louis, which extended their NL Central lead to 1 1/2 games over second-placed Milwaukee.
Carlson broke a 2-all tie with his eighth homer of the season, a drive to the left against Taylor Rogers (1-6) in the eighth.
Hunter Renfroe and Rowdy Tellez homer for Milwaukee, who beat St. Louis 3-2 in 10 innings Saturday night.
Pujols hit a solo shot in the second and a three-run drive in the eighth to give him 689 career home runs. It was his 63rd career multihomer game, trying for fifth all-time with Willie Mays.
Pujols, 42, ranks fourth on the career homer list behind Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714) and Alex Rodriguez (696).
“I’m the grandpa in this clubhouse” said Pujols. “I’m having a great time.”
Pujols has 10 homers and 30 RBIs in his last season, he said.
“I’ve been putting in some good swings all year.” said Pujols. “Sometimes you get breaks. Sometimes you are not.”
Pujols has hit 10 home runs for the 21st time in his career.
“Seeing him do these incredible things and you hear the crowd react, he just gives people what they want.” said Nicholas. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Not only did Pujols do a good job on the field, but he also offered some valuable advice during the pre-match batting briefing.
“He has a lot of experience, he’s faced a lot of guys in this league.” said Karlson.
Pujols, a regular starter against lefties, even impressed the competition.
“He got his seats and he did damage” Milwaukee outfielder Andrew McCutchen said. “He’s done that his whole career.”
Mikolas (9-9) allowed two runs and four hits. He hit six and walked none.
Mikolas had had a tough outing. He gave up 10 runs in a 16-5 loss to Colorado on Tuesday.
“Kind of a Clunker in Colorado”, said Nicholas. “I stuck with my guns and stuck with what works best. Hit the zone and good things will happen.
Renfroe hit a two-run shot on the second off from Mikolas, who then retired the next 10 batters. It was Renfroe’s 20th homer of the season.
O’Neill connected the game with his seventh homer in the sixth.
St. Louis led the season series 8-7. The teams have four more games against each other.
NEXT: Brewers: RHP Freddy Peralta (4-2, 4.37 ERA) meets Los Angeles Dodgers LHP Julio Urias (12-6, 2.49 ERA) in the first of four games Monday in Milwaukee. Peralta will make his 11th start of the season.