Jordan Walker and Ivan Herrera hit impressive homers off All-Star Jacob Misiorowski, but the Brewers rallied again to beat the Cardinals 4-3 at Busch Stadium. Milwaukee won in St. Louis a second time in as many nights and beat the Cards for a fifth time in six meetings in 2026.
Still, it wasn’t enough to beat a cold and calculated Brewers team that continues to steamroll through the competition in the National League Central Division.
Walker and Herrera connected for early long balls, but Misiorowski rebounded to retire the final 14 batters that he faced and Milwaukee rebounded with four runs in the middle innings to win 4-3 and beat the Cardinals for a fifth time in six meetings in 2026.
"I liked what we were able to do with a tough arm (in Misiorowski) and we took some good swings and we took some tough at bats, but he made some good pitches as well," Cardinals' manager Oliver Marmol told reporters. "It was a good back and forth and unfortunately we came up one (run) short again. But we competed well."
The afternoon game was a makeup from a rain out at Busch Stadium back on May 5. The two teams will play the second time tonight at 6:45 p.m. CT with right-hander Hunter Dobbins (1-0) facing lefty Robert Gasser (1-3).
The Cardinals won the first matchup of 2026 against a Brewers team that has dominated the NL Central the past 2 ½ seasons, but they have since five straight. A four-run seventh by the Brewers doomed the Cardinals on Monday, and the Brewers again pushed across the winning run in Tuesday’s seventh inning.
Misiorowski, a Missouri native who grew up rooting for the Cardinals, racked up double-digit strikeouts (11) without a walk for the fourth time this season. Of the 103 pitches he threw, 57 were at least 100 mph. He averaged 101.9 mph on his 61 four-seam fastballs – up from the 100.4 mph average he came into the day featuring. He twice hit 104 mph, struck out six with his fastball and recorded 16 swings and misses on the day.
Brown challenged his Cardinals to embrace the challenge of hitting Misiorowski, and they prepared accordingly.
“I just said, ‘Let’s enjoy the competition and don’t worry about striking out. Let’s do it on our terms,’” Brown told Cardinals.TV. “We pumped up the heater machine to about 120 (mph) and just be on time for the best heater in baseball and know how to hit it.”
Walker, Herrera deliver big flies early
The Cardinals jumped on Misiorowski early on when Wetherholt reached on a hit by pitch and Walker hit the first pitch he saw from his fellow All-Star for a line drive of a homer. Misiorowski’s cutter came in at 95.1 mph and it left at 105.6 mph and traveled 386 feet for Walker’s career-best 21st home run of the season. Not only was it St. Louis’ first homer of the season off Milwaukee pitching in six-plus games, but it was the Cardinals’ 100th homer of the season.
Bruce Zimmermann, who was promoted on Tuesday to provide bulk innings for the Cardinals, limited the Brewers to three runs over five innings of work.
Two innings later, Milwaukee got production from the bottom of its lineup in a second straight game to knot the score. Cooper Pratt led off the third with a walk and scored on a Joey Ortiz double. Then, Christian Yelich – who came into the game in a 1-for-16 skid – singled to plate Ortiz to tie the game. Yelich, long a Cardinals killer, doubled to right field to open the game.
The Cards regained the lead in the bottom of the third when Ivan Herrera timed up a 102.4 mph four-seam fastball from Misiorowski for his 11th homer of the season.
However, the Brewers knotted the score in the sixth on a looping single by Garrett Mitchell and they again used the seventh inning to crush the spirits of the Cardinals. A night after scoring four times in the seventh to wipe out a 3-0 deficit, the Brewers pushed across the go-ahead run when Yelich went the other way for a double that scored Pratt, who came all the way around following a leadoff walk by Ryne Stanek. The veteran leader left the game with a sprained right ankle suffered while trying to cover first base on a bunt single by Ortiz.
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