Cardinals Power Up for 7-3 Win Over Brewers, Magic Number is Six

Jhonny Peralta and Stephen Piscotty hit back-to-back homers and combined for seven RBIs to power the St. Louis Cardinals to a 7-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night.

St. Louis has a four-game lead over Pittsburgh for the NL Central lead.

The Cardinals trailed 3-0 in the fourth when Peralta hit a three-run homer into the center field bleachers, and Piscotty followed two pitches later with a blast into the left-center seats. The homer by Peralta, St. Louis' cleanup hitter, was his first since Aug. 1.

Piscotty added a two-run, two-out single off Taylor Jungmann (9-7) in the fifth and a run-scoring single in the seventh to help the Cardinals win their fifth straight.

Michael Wacha (17-6) worked five innings and allowed three runs.

St. Louis, a major league-best 97-56, went 41 games over .500 for the first time.