Bauers, Turang Go Deep as Brewers Rout Cardinals 8-4

Jake Bauers crushed a 391-foot, three-run homer in the third inning that turned a modest lead into a 6-0 rout, and Milwaukee never looked back. The Brewers rolled to an 8-4 final, with five different players recording multi-hit games.

Milwaukee wasted no time making Andre Pallante pay. In the second inning, Sal Frelick singled to right to score Bauers, then Cooper Pratt followed with a single to center to score Vaughn, and just like that the Brewers were up 2-0 before St. Louis could blink. The third inning was worse for the Cardinals. Brice Turang singled to right to score Mitchell and make it 3-0, and then Bauers stepped up and launched one 391 feet to right, scoring Chourio and Turang with it. Milwaukee led 6-0 after three innings, and Pallante — who lasted just 5.0 innings and allowed 8 hits and 6 earned runs — looks like he never found an answer for a Brewers lineup that was locked in from the jump.

St. Louis tried to claw back. Nootbaar singled to center to score Burleson in the fourth, and then Jordan Walker — who is set to participate in the Home Run Derby in Philadelphia next week — delivered the single most dramatic swing of the night in the sixth, a 406-foot blast to left that scored Wetherholt and Burleson and suddenly made it 6-4. The win probability swung from 7% to 17% on that one swing, the biggest single-play shift of the game. For a moment, it appeared St. Louis had life. But that's as close as the Cardinals would get.

Turang answered immediately in the seventh, going 419 feet to center for a solo shot that pushed the lead back to three, and Contreras added a sacrifice fly to right in the ninth to score Chourio and close it at 8-4. On the mound, Logan Henderson gave Milwaukee 5.1 innings, allowing 3 hits and 3 earned runs with 4 strikeouts — a serviceable outing that kept the Brewers in front long enough for the offense to do its damage. The story of the night was the top of Milwaukee's order: Bauers went 2-4 with a homer, 3 RBI, and 2 runs scored; Turang matched him at 2-5 with a homer, 2 RBI, and 2 runs; and Jackson Chourio went 2-5 and crossed the plate twice. Five Brewers recorded multi-hit games. That kind of lineup-wide production, with the All-Star break approaching, looks like a team hitting its stride at exactly the right time.