After having their five-game winning streak snapped at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday, the St. Louis Cardinals continued the series with their National League Central rival as they still inched closer to the 100-win mark for the third time in 15 seasons.
And the win column moved up one again on Saturday.
Jaime Garcia pitched yet another stellar start, going eight innings as the Cardinals beat the Brewers 5-1.
The starters for the game on Saturday were Garcia (9-5, 2.45) and Tyler Wagner (0-0, 12.27).
Following a scoreless first inning by the Brewers, the Cardinals kicked it into high gear in the bottom half of the first inning, in order to give Garcia some great breathing room early. Stephen Piscotty hit an infield single, and later scored thanks to a double by Matt Holliday to make it 1-0 Cardinals.
But that was just the beginning.
After a Jason Heyward walk, Jhonny Peralta singled to score Holliday to give them their second run of the game. Brandon Moss was issued a walk by Wagner next, and Kolten Wong hit a two-RBI single, scoring both Heyward and Peralta as it became a 4-0 game.
The following inning, Holliday scored Piscotty once again to make it a 5-0 lead, and Garcia took full advantage of it.
Throughout the next five innings, Garcia pitched outstanding baseball, as the veteran looked for his first-10 win season in four years. The only blemish on the evening for him was a run that was scored when Jonathan Lucroy scored Michael Reed to make it 5-1. His final line for the evening: 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 Ks.
But in the end, that was the final score, as St. Louis won their 98th game of the season, and Garcia improved to 10-5 on the year.
Meanwhile, the magic number to clinch the division dropped to five, as the Cardinals will play their final home game on Sunday, with John Lackey on the mound.
(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
