The Milwaukee Brewers celebrated on two occasions Saturday, the first time after clinching a playoff berth and the second by overcoming a five-run deficit en route to a spirited victory.
The Brewers will look for more emotional fireworks on Sunday afternoon when they vie for a three-game-series sweep against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals.
Milwaukee (91-58) followed an 8-2 romp in the series opener on Friday with a 9-8 victory in 10 innings on Saturday. Before the latter contest, the Brewers secured their seventh playoff berth in eight seasons after the New York Mets lost to the Texas Rangers earlier in the day.
With Milwaukee trailing 8-7 in the 10th inning on Saturday, Caleb Durbin ripped an RBI double to the left-center gap to forge a tie before scoring when Andruw Monasterio capped a 10-pitch at-bat with a game-ending single.
“I’m not sure we were thinking about clinching and just trying to win the night,” Durbin told Fox Sports after the Brewers’ 11th walk-off win of the season. “It’s been our brand of ball all year. Even if you go down early, take it at-bat by at-bat, keep grinding it out, and see what happens”
The Brewers are bidding for its third straight National League Central title. They hold a 6 1/2-game lead over the second-place Chicago Cubs and carry a two-game advantage over the Philadelphia Phillies in the race for the top seed in the NL.
While Milwaukee is sitting pretty, manager Pat Murphy had some pointed comments after Saturday’s game.
“Who believed before the season that we were going to be over .500? You can’t find a prognosticator that said we were going to be over .500 before the season. Not one,” Murphy said. “And for these guys to pull it together and compete like that is special beyond belief.”
Milwaukee left-hander Jose Quintana (11-6, 3.88 ERA) will start on Sunday against St. Louis right-hander Miles Mikolas (7-10, 4.84).
Quintana will look to bounce back after allowing five runs on four hits in 6 2/3 innings of a 5-0 setback to the Rangers on Monday.
He has split a pair of outings against St. Louis this season, yielding one run in five innings of a 7-1 win on April 27 before permitting a season-high seven runs (five earned) in 4 1/3 frames of an 8-5 setback on June 14.
The Cardinals (72-77) enter Sunday’s contest on the heels of five straight losses.
“Our guys just want to continue to take their best shot as long as we’re still in this thing,” St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said.
Quintana, 36, is 7-5 with a 4.15 ERA in 16 career appearances (all starts) against the Cardinals.
Mikolas suffered a hard-luck setback in his lone meeting with Milwaukee this season. He allowed two runs on six hits in six innings in a 3-2 setback on June 15.
Mikolas, 37, is 10-7 with a 3.82 ERA in 20 career appearances (19 starts) versus the Brewers.
–Field Level Media
