Nolan Arenado hit a walk-off solo homer to lift the St. Louis Cardinals past the visiting Milwaukee Brewers 6-5 Saturday afternoon.
Arenado’s homer bailed out Cardinals reliever Ryan Helsley (1-0), who allowed Jackson Chourio’s game-tying two-run homer in the ninth.
Lars Nootbaar drove in two runs and scored twice for the Cardinals, who improved to 10-4 at home. Masyn Winn hit two doubles and scored twice, and Brendan Donovan went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
Cardinals starting pitcher Sonny Gray allowed three runs on seven hits and three walks in six innings. He struck out four.
Chourio went 4-for-5 with his homer and three RBIs for the Brewers, who lost their fourth straight game.
Brewers starter Quinn Priester allowed five runs on eight hits and three walks in five innings. Reliever Trevor Megill (0-2) took the loss after allowing Arenado’s homer.
The Cardinals moved ahead 1-0 in the second inning. Nolan Gorman hit a double, advanced on a groundout and scored on Pedro Pages’ sacrifice fly.
St. Louis made it 3-0 in the third inning. Winn and Nootbaar hit back-to-back doubles to produce a run, and Donovan hit a one-out RBI double.
The Cardinals upped their margin to 5-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning. Winn hit another double and scored on Nootbaar’s single.
Nootbaar took second on the throw and scored when Willson Contreras’ infield single led to a throwing error.
The Brewers cut their deficit to 5-2 in the fifth inning. Joey Ortiz dropped a sun-aided double into left-center field, then he scored on Caleb Durbin’s double.
After Gray picked Durbin off second base, Brice Turang walked and scored on Chourio’s double.
William Contreras led off the sixth inning with a single. Rhys Hoskins hit a one-out single, Jake Bauers walked, and Ortiz hit into a run-scoring forceout to cut the lead to 5-3.
Milwaukee tied the game 5-5 in the ninth inning when Isaac Collins hit a single and Chourio slammed his two-run homer. But Arenado had the answer in the bottom of the inning.
