Cardinals 4, Brewers 2
ST. LOUIS -- Milwaukee's Wily Peralta lost his no-hitter, shutout and game with one pitch.
Matt Holliday crashed a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning for St. Louis' first hit as the Cardinals stayed atop the National League Central on Tuesday night with a 4-2 victory over the Brewers at Busch Stadium.
Shelby Miller (13-9) beat Milwaukee for the third time this season, yielding five hits and two walks in 6 2/3 innings while striking out four. The Brewers broke up the shutout in the ninth when pinch-hitter Logan Schafer belted a two-run homer off Edward Mujica.
St. Louis (84-60) moved 1 1/2 games in front of Pittsburgh, pending the result of the Pirates' game in Texas, and expanded its lead over Cincinnati to three games as the Reds fell 9-1 to the Chicago Cubs.
The Cardinals did nothing with Peralta for 5 2/3 innings until Holliday stepped to the plate with Matt Carpenter aboard after a one-out walk. Ambushing a 95 mph first-pitch fastball, Holliday lined it 424 feet over the left-center field wall for his 19th homer of the season.
Carpenter's two-out RBI single off reliever Mike Gonzalez in the seventh scored Matt Adams for a 3-0 lead. Adams tacked on a two-out RBI single in the eighth.
Peralta (9-15) allowed two hits in 6 2/3 innings, walking four and striking seven but fell to 0-3 this year against St. Louis. The Brewers (62-81) dropped to 3-11 against the Cardinals and have been outscored by a total of 81-49.
The game's first half was dominated by rookie starting pitchers. Miller and Peralta traded zeroes through five innings.
Peralta didn't allow a hit, whiffing five of the first seven batters he faced with a fastball clocked as high as 97 mph. The Cardinals managed just two base runners. Pete Kozma reached on an error by first baseman Jonathan Lucroy in the third and Matt Holliday drew a walk in the fourth.
Miller scattered four hits and had just two strikeouts but induced eight groundouts, unusual for a pitcher who relies on a four-seam fastball.
The Brewers loaded the bases in the second, but Miller got Peralta to bounce out to second.
NOTES: St. Louis 1B Allen Craig (left foot sprain) has had his re-examination pushed back to Thursday, at which point he expects to learn when he might be able to return. Craig was injured in the fourth inning of a 5-4, 16-inning win in Cincinnati last Wednesday. ... Milwaukee OF Khris Davis (left wrist inflammation) remains out of the lineup. He injured himself before batting practice on Friday, was scratched for a game against the Chicago Cubs and hasn't played since ... The Brewers started a stretch of 20 games in 20 days to end the season, 13 of them against playoff-bound teams (six against St. Louis, four at Atlanta and three against Cincinnati). By contrast, 16 of the Cardinals' last 19 games are against teams with losing records.
