Corbin Burnes dominates Cardinals, Brewers split series with blowout victory

ST. LOUIS - It was a performance to remember for Corbin Burnes.

The right-hander dominated the St. Louis Cardinals over seven innings, recording his 500th career strikeout along the way as the Milwaukee Brewers earned a split of their four-game series at Busch Stadium with an 8-0 victory on Sunday afternoon.

"We've had two tough series with them. Obviously it's been pretty back and forth," Burnes said. "We've split the season series with them, but good baseball teams are going to find ways to scratch out a split, or win two of three.

"It was good to split that one going into a tough series against the Cubs."

Burnes matched a season high by striking out 11 while lowering his earned run average to 1.95, fifth-best in the major leagues and second-best in the National League.

He allowed only two hits to match his season low and walked one to improve to 3-2 as Milwaukee shut out an opponent for the fourth time.

"That's kind of where we want to be all the time," Burnes said. "The fact that it took 10 starts to get there is a little frustrating but yeah, it's kind of what we wanted to do in all aspects."

Burnes was also afforded plenty of breathing room thanks to an offensive outburst against one of the National League's hottest pitchers coming in, Miles Mikolas.

Jace Peterson belted a three-run home run in the fifth to break the game open, and Rowdy Tellez and Lorenzo Cain each went deep later. The Brewers racked up 13 hits, with nine coming against Mikolas.

"It was the bottom of the order today that did a heck of a job," manager Craig Counsell said. "Omar, Lo, and Jace probably had the hit of the game. Those three guys, they were the offense today."

BOX SCORE: Brewers 8, Cardinals 0

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After seeing a potential run cut down at the plate in what was a 1-0 game to end their fourth inning, the Brewers made that up and then some the following frame.

The decisive blow was struck by Peterson, who followed a leadoff walk by Omar Narváez and single by Cain with a three-run homer to right..

The utility man, starting at third base, turned on an inside slider and drilled it out to right for his fourth homer of the season and first since May 15.

"Omar having that at-bat right there and then Lo coming up with a hit, for me, I'm looking to get one of those guys in and keep the line moving," Peterson said. "Those guys set the tone that inning, and I feel like it starts getting contagious and guys start feeding off that."

With Burnes on top of his game, the four runs – a rare outburst by the offense with the right-hander on the mound – figured to be more than enough.

But just for good measure, Tellez hit a solo shot to right with one out in the sixth for Milwaukee's sixth homer of the series and his team-leading 10th.

Narváez, up next, legged out a stand-up triple when his drive to right got past a diving Brendan Donovan, and Cain's infield single plated Narváez to make it 6-0 and chase Mikolas after a season-high 115 pitches.

Burnes struck out two more in the sixth to give him his fourth outing with 10 or more on the season. He capped his day with his 11th in the seventh, and he exited after 99 pitches.

"I think as a whole, we were more aggressive today," Cain said. "Just attacking him and trying not to get behind in counts as much as possible. He's a really talented pitcher and always a tough AB, so for us to get to him today was huge.

"And it's always nice to put up a few runs for Burnes, as well."

Cain's two-run homer – his first of the season – capped the scoring in the eighth.

Of Milwaukee's 13 hits, 12 came from the fifth through ninth spots in the order with Narváez and Cain racking up three-hit games and Tellez, Taylor and Peterson each with a pair.

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The early innings were mostly a pitching clinic, as was to be expected with Mikolas (1.96 ERA coming in) and Burnes on the mound.

Burnes was given an early run to work with, though, thanks to some clutch two-out hitting as Tyrone Taylor singled and Narváez followed by doubling him in.

The lead could have been bigger had it not been for some terrific Cardinals defense.

First, Donovan ran down what could have been a double into the corner by Cain immediately following Narváez's two-bagger, prompting Cain to throw up his hands in frustration in the aftermath.

Then in the fourth, Tellez singled with two outs only to be thrown out at home on a Taylor double to right-center.

It was an aggressive send by third-base coach Jason Lane, but Tommy Edman made a great play to pick a short-hopped throw from the outfield and then made a perfect throw home to get the sliding Tellez.

Burnes, meanwhile, faced the minimum through three innings and opened the fourth with a strikeout of Edman – his sixth of the game to that point and 500th of his career.

"It's cool," said Burnes of the milestone. "Hopefully it's 500 of many, many more. We'll see."

Nolan Gorman followed by drawing a walk and Juan Yepez doubled to put a runner in scoring position, but Donovan flew out to keep it a 1-0 game.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Corbin Burnes dominates Cardinals as Brewers split four-game series