Brewers settle for split of doubleheader with St. Louis, playoff hopes fading

Milwaukee had to settle for a split of its doubleheader with St. Louis on Friday.

The Brewers took the first game by jumping out to an early lead and getting a standout pitching effort on the way to a 3-0 win.

Eric Sogard and Orlando Arcia drove in runs in the second and then Christian Yelich drilled his 12th home run of the year in the third.

That was plenty for the trio of Brent Suter, Devin Williams and Josh Hader. Suter gave up two hits over four innings, Williams allowed two hits in a pair of innings and then Hader came in for the seventh inning and allowed just a hit as he picked up his 12th save of the year.

Things got out of control fast in the second game, a 9-1 victory for the Cardinals. St. Louis scored three runs in the first two innings and added six more in the fifth off of Drew Rasmussen and Eric Lauer.

Meanwhile, Daniel Ponce de Leon was pitching a gem, not allowing a hit until the sixth inning when Arcia took him deep for a solo home run.

With the split, Milwaukee stayed 1.5 games back for the second NL Wild Card spot and sit two games back of St. Louis and Cincinnati for the second playoff spot in the NL Central with two games to play.