Rhys Hoskins, Jake Bauers and Joey Ortiz each homered to cool Sonny Gray as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the slumping St. Louis Cardinals 7-1 on Thursday night.
It was the fifth straight loss for the Cardinals, who opened a four-game series with the NL Central-leading Brewers. Milwaukee has won its last six against St. Louis, a streak that began last season.
Milwaukee’s William Contreras and Christian Yelich each went 3 of 4. Jared Koenig (4-1) pitched two scoreless innings of relief and worked his way out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fifth.
Gray (4-2) has been one of the last-place Cardinals’ few bright spots since signing a three-year, $75 million contract in the offseason, but the 2023 AL Cy Young Award runner-up couldn’t stop St. Louis’ slide.
Through his first five starts, Gray allowed a total of six runs, and only three were earned. His 0.89 ERA was the lowest since 1910 by any Cardinals pitcher in his first five appearances with the organization.
The Brewers scored six runs off Gray on Thursday during his five-inning stint. Gray had given up just one homer all year before the Brewers went deep against him three times.
Dairon Blanco had three hits, including a two-run homer in the third inning, Michael Wacha picked up his first win in over a month and the Kansas City Royals rolled to a 10-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday night.
Vinnie Pasquantino also had a two-run homer in the third and drove in three runs for the Royals, who have won three of four. Pasquantino has nine RBI in his last five games.
Maikel Garcia added three hits, including a two-run double in the sixth.
Wacha (2-4) — who went 0-4 in his previous five starts. — allowed only two hits in six innings before running into trouble in the seventh. The Angels loaded the bases as their first three hitters got aboard when Luis Guillorme and Cole Tucker drew bases-loaded walks to chase the right-hander.
The Royals are in Los Angeles again to take on the Angels at 8:38p
The Cardinals play the Brewers in Milwaukee tonight at 7:10p
For a Complete Look at All the Latest Sports CLICK LINK BELOW