Brice Turang leads the charge as Brewers take down Cardinals 8-4

In his final start of the regular season, a final chance to make his case for a start in the NLDS, Robert Gasser did everything right.

In what became an 8-4 win, Gasser absolutely shoved against the Cardinals across six innings, allowing just one hit, a homer to Ivan Herrera, while striking out a career-high nine batters. He retired the first 10 batters that he faced, striking out six of them.

The Brewers offense, meanwhile, was providing him plenty of run support. They jumped on the board quickly in the first with a Garrett Mitchell single followed by a Brice Turang RBI double for his 95th RBI of the season.

They would punch through again in the fourth inning, which got started with a leadoff walk from Christian Yelich, followed by a single from Joey Ortiz. A fielder’s choice grounder from Luis Lara put Yelich on third and then another fielder’s choice grounder from Sal Frelick brought Yelich home to make it a 2-1 Brewers lead. David Hamilton would double and put runners on 2nd and 3rd, but Mitchell grounded out to first to end the inning.

But the Brewers were not done scoring yet. In the 5th inning, Brice Turang led things off with his second double of the night and came around to score on the single from Jake Bauers. Christian Yelich followed with a single of his own, then Luis Lara drew a walk and the bases were loaded. Oli Marmol made a pitching change and pulled his starter Michael McGreevy and turned to Brycen Mautz, a left-hander, out of the bullpen. Pat Murphy countered with Jackson Chourio to pinch hit for Sal Frelick. Chourio drew a walk to bring in another run and make it a 4-1 ballgame.

Armed with a three run lead, Gasser went back out for the 6th and sat down the Cardinals in order. He received a standing ovation walking off the mound and Murphy would turn the ball over to his bullpen after that.

“He threw the ball great. He’s been throwing the ball with great confidence” Pat Murphy said. “I think he’s got tremendous confidence and he’ll definitely be somebody who pitches for us [in October].”

Bryse Wilson was first out of the gate, just activated off the IL a few hours prior, and Wilson stumbled out of that gate.

He allowed a home run to the first batter he faced, Jordan Walker, then gave up a single to Leo Bernal, and then a moonshot home run to Alec Burleson, who hit the foul pole about 80% of the way to the top. Very quickly, that 4-1 Brewers lead turned into a 4-4 tie ballgame.

Fear not, the Brewers offense was not done yet.

In the bottom of the 8th inning, Chourio got things started with a leadoff single. David Hamilton was then hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Garrett Mitchell dropped down a sacrifice bunt, but pitcher Justin Bruihl airmailed the throw to first, allowing Mitchell to reach and the bases to be loaded for Turang. Turang punched a single to left, through the drawn in infield, to bring in his 96th and 97th RBIs of the season.

In the month of September, Turang is hitting .368/.484/.592 with eight doubles, three homers, and 19 RBIs.

The Cardinals then made another pitching change, bringing in Cade Winquest. Winquest had Mitchell picked off at second, Mitchell tried to get in a rundown and was heading to third. Winquest decided to make an off-balance throw and airmailed it over the third baseman’s head and to the railing.

That allowed both runners to advance, then Contreras punched a single to left that brought home another run and make it 7-4 with still nobody out. Jake Bauers added in a sacrifice fly to left and the Brewers took an 8-4 lead.

Trevor Megill came on for the 9th inning and was able to close it out in short order and the Crew secured their 101st win of the regular season.

Joey Ortiz was removed from the game late due to a nagging knee bruise that he suffered in Philadelphia. Murphy said his knee was “really sore today, so that’s why we put Hamilton at short, just because Joey’s knee couldn’t move very much.”

There are just two games left to play in the regular season. Dustin May will start on Saturday while Jacob Misiorowski will start on Sunday.