Liberatore tosses 6-plus strong innings to help Cardinals beat Brewers 3-2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Matthew Liberatore pitched six-plus solid innings, and Brendan Donovan had a pair of singles and drove in a run to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 3-2 Friday night.

Liberatore (2-2) allowed two runs, one earned, on five hits with four strikeouts. He has completed six innings in all five of his starts this season.

Ryan Helsley pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his fourth save.

Lars Nootbaar drove in Masyn Winn with a single to right in the bottom of the fifth inning and later scored on Donovan’s single to left field to give St. Louis a 3-0 lead.

Winn singled to leadoff the inning and chase Brewers starter Chad Patrick. Winn then stole second and advanced to third when shortstop Joey Ortiz couldn’t handle catcher William Contreras’ throw.

Patrick (1-2) allowed two runs on four hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings for Milwaukee, which has lost three straight and four of its last five.

Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell departed the game in the middle of the fourth inning with left oblique tightness after grounding out to Winn in the top of the inning.

Key moment

Milwaukee loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh when Sal Frelick doubled off Liberatore, Rhys Hoskins singled off Kyle Leahy and Issac Collins walked. Pinch-hitter Jake Bauers drove in Frelick on a groundout to cut Milwaukee’s deficit to 3-2, but Caleb Durbin grounded out, and Brice Turang flied out to center to end the threat.

Key stat

Nootbaar drew his ninth leadoff walk of the season in the bottom of the first, breaking Davey Lopes’ record of eight leadoff walks in March and April, set in 1975 with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Up next

Brewers RHP Quinn Priester (1-0, 1.93 ERA) opposes Cardinals RHP Sonny Gray (3-0, 3.41) on Saturday.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb