Tyrone Taylor, Adrian Houser lead the way as Brewers down Cardinals 8-2

Box Score

A trio of home runs by Josh Donaldson and Tyrone Taylor and a ninth-inning rally backed six strong innings from Adrian Houser as the Brewers defeated the Cardinals 8-2 on Wednesday night.

Donaldson’s three-run homer in the first gave the Brewers an early lead against Cardinals starter Zack Thompson. Twelve of Donaldson’s 22 hits this season have been home runs.

Taylor continued his hot run at the plate since the trade deadline by blasting a pair of homers. The first gave the Brewers a 4-1 lead in the fourth, and the second provided an insurance run in the ninth.

Houser’s night got off to an inauspicious start. Lars Nootbaar led off the bottom of the first with a double and scored on a bloop single by Paul Goldschmidt.

The right-hander quickly dialed it in from there, not allowing a runner to advance past first base over the rest of his outing.

Houser allowed just the one run in six innings. He struck out four and induced 11 ground balls, nine of which went for outs.

The Cardinals added a run against Joel Payamps, who battled through a rainy eighth inning. Payamps allowed an RBI single to Richie Palacios to make it 4-2 and brought the go-ahead run to the plate, but he coaxed a pop-out from Luken Barker to end the threat.

The Brewers blew it open in the ninth, starting with Taylor’s second home run. After Sal Frelick, Andruw Monasterio, and Blake Perkins reached with two outs to load the bases, Mark Canha drove them in with a bases-clearing double to make it 8-2.

The four-game series concludes at 12:15 p.m. CT on Thursday. Wade Miley and Miles Mikolas start in a battle of veteran hurlers.