Jose Fermin drove in three runs to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-1 victory over the visiting Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday.
The magic number for Brewers (95-61) to win their third straight National League Central title remained at one, pending the outcome of the game between the second-place Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds.
Ivan Herrera hit a two-run homer for the Cardinals (76-80), who took two of three games in the weekend series.
Cardinals starting pitcher Matthew Liberatore (8-12) allowed one run on five hits in five innings. He struck out six and walked one.
Matt Svanson pitched two scoreless innings for St. Louis. Ryan Fernandez handled the eighth and Riley O’Brien finished off the victory in the ninth.
Robert Gasser (0-1) served as the opener for the Brewers in a bullpen game. He allowed two runs on two walks and a hit while striking out two in three innings.
Gasser overcame wildness in the first. With one out he hit Herrera and walked Alec Burleson, but he escaped by retiring the next two batters.
Fermin saved a run in the second. The second baseman made a diving two-out catch of Danny Jansen’s blooper to shallow right field to strand a runner at second.
Liberatore escaped bases-loaded trouble in the third. Blake Perkins and Joey Ortiz hit singles to start the threat, then executed a double steal with one out.
After Isaac Collins walked to load the bases, Liberatore struck out Andrew Vaughn and got Rhys Hoskins to hit an inning-ending groundout.
Herrera’s two-run homer to left-center put the Cardinals up 2-0 in the bottom of the inning.
Milwaukee turned to former Cardinals righty Erick Fedde in the fourth, and St. Louis exploited its former teammate. Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman walked, then Fermin hit a two-run double.
The Brewers cut their deficit to 4-1 in the fifth. Ortiz tripled and scored on Jackson Chourio’s sacrifice fly.
St. Louis increased its lead to 5-1 in the eighth when Fermin drew a bases-loaded walk.
