MILWAUKEE — For a team that admits it must play detailed-oriented and hiccup-free baseball to have a chance to win, the Cardinals proved that point Friday night.

They did not play that precision game.

And, as a result, they weren’t as close as the score wound indicate.

On their way to a seventh playoff berth in the past eight years, the Brewers did their part to clinch as early as Friday night with an 8-2 victory against the Cardinals. Milwaukee needed only one hit to turn the Cardinals’ third-inning quagmire into a four-run lead, and then stiff-armed the Cardinals from there. Christian Yelich added the exclamation in the seventh with a two-run homer off the scoreboard at American Family Field. The Cardinals (72-76) missed on their lone opportunity to stun the Brewers and could overcome their sporadically haphazard play.

The first team to 90 wins in the majors, the Brewers (90-58) could also become the first club to clinch a playoff spot, but in addition to their win they needed losses from the Reds and Giants out west Friday night to unpack their playoff-bound promotional t-shirts.

Cardinals starter Andre Pallante did not give up a hit that left the infield until the fourth inning, but that hit led to being down 5-0. He walked four, including three in the Brewers’ four-run third inning. Pallante did not strike out a batter in his five innings and he would allow more runs (five) than hits (four) due to the gift walks.

Brewers starter Quinn Priester, an early-season addition via trade with Boston, improved to 13-2 for the season. He allowed two runs on five hits and struck out five.

The Cardinals slipped to 4 for 32 in their past two games with runners position.

Winn (knee) scratched again

Shortstop Masyn Winn missed his third consecutive game, and for the second time in four days he was a last-minute scratch from the lineup due to knee pain. Winn has been attempting to play through a slight tear of the meniscus in his right knee. He took the field during warmups Friday and took groundballs with the intent of being in the lineup. As BP ended, however, the Cardinals and their shortstop made the call that he would miss another game.

The team is trying to avoid the injured list and Winn has expressed a preference to play through the end of the season, pain permitting.

Displaced from second base due to the return of Brendan Donovan from the IL, Thomas Saggese started at shortstop and will continue to spell Winn or replace him if the knee pain does not subside.

Just a mess of an inning

When the dust had settled and the Brewers had turned the Cardinals’ mess into a comfy lead, the scoreboard would read one error committed by the Cardinals.

What an understatement.

In the third inning, the Cardinals committed as many as three plays not made, and those weren’t even the most problematic parts of the inning. Pallante also walked three batters. By the time the inning was over the Brewers had turned one hit into four runs. And that one hit, if not for the grace of the official scorer, could have been ruled an error.

Pallante retired the first six batters he faced to take a flawless start into the third inning. No. 7 hitter Jake Bauers earned a full-count walk from Pallante. Pallante then walked No. 8 hitter Caleb Durbin. When No. 9 hitter Joey Ortiz attempted to give the Cardinals an out with a bunt, Pallante fielded the ball on the third base side of the infield. His throw to first was offline and could have been ruled an error to load the bases. Ortiz was awarded a hit.

Regardless of the specifics, the bases were loaded and the top of the Brewers’ order was due up.

Pallante got to a full count on leadoff hitter Sal Frelick.

But the next pitch was up and in – and Frelick took his walk and freebie RBI.

The mishaps were just beginning for the Cardinals.

The next two took place at home plate.

With the bases still loaded, Jackson Chourio lofted a fly ball to right field that gave Jordan Walker plenty of time to line up his feet and his throw home. He let sail a through all the way to the plate. The ball had enough carry to reach catcher Jimmy Crooks. There was just one issue. Durbin’s Superman slide toward home put him in direct line of the throw. The ball caromed him and away from Crooks. That allowed another run to score and Frelick reached third. That trailing run to third by Frelick proved important.

Brice Turang skipped a grounder to first that was hard enough for Willson Contreras to go home with his throw. Crooks didn’t keep control of it – and Frelick scored.

Six batters into the inning and the only ball out of the infield was Chourio’s sacrifice fly. Still, the Brewers scored four runs, three of them earned.

Every last one of them deserved.

Brewers try for encore

The pitcher was new, but the situation sure seemed familiar.

In the sixth inning, three consecutive Brewers again loaded the bases without getting a ball out of the infield. Lefty John King, who returned from the 10-day injured list Friday, walked pinch-hitter Andrew Waughn with two outs in the inning. As Vaughn was King’s third batter faced, the Cardinals lifted the lefty for a right-hander to face the bottom of the Brewers’ order. Jorge Alcala then allowed back-to-back infield singles. Durbin bunted for a hit on the right-handed reliever, and Ortiz didn’t bunt but nubbed a single down the third-base line all the same.

Once again the bottom of the Brewers’ order had loaded the bases.

Once again they did it without a ball getting past the mound.

This time the inning ended with any more trouble as Frelick lined out.

In the seventh, Yelich took the more expedient route to a rally. He didn’t fiddle around with infield singles and just put the ball well out of reach of any fielder. Yelich’s 28th home run hit the scoreboard in center field to push the Brewers out to a five-run lead. The home run traveled an estimated 432 feet.

According to Statcast, Yelich’s homer was the farthest hit of the night in the majors to that point of the evening.

Burleson triples, missed on bigger chance

Alec Burleson created the Cardinals’ first two runs of the evening and despite the lopsided feel of the game had a chance in the seventh to overtake the Brewers.

Burleson drilled a pitch to deep center field that Chourio failed to control at the wall. The ball skittered away from Chourio, Burleson used the time to reach third for an RBI triple. Ivan Herrera scored easily on the play. Burleson came home a few batters later when Lars Nootbaar slashed an opposite-field single against lefty Aaron Ashby for an RBI.

That trimmed the Brewers’ lead to 5-2.

An inning later, in the top half of the inning that Yelich’s homer rang off the scoreboard and onto the scoreboard, Burleson came up again. This time, the Cardinals had the bases. The Cardinals’ No. 3 hitter, less than a week removed from an injured-list stint, had a chance to not only hit the teams first grand slam of the season but flip the Brewers’ lead and the entire feel of the game.

Teammates Walker and Donovan got the singles and Herrera walked to load the bases for Burleson. He bounced a pitch into a groundout to end the inning.

Even after Yelich’s homer, there would be another chance to drain some of the Brewers’ lead. The first two Cardinals batters of the eighth inning reached base, and part of that spark was Nootbaar’s second hit to left field of the game. With two on and no outs, the next three Cardinals failed to put a ball in play. All three struck out. Two of them, Nolan Gorman and Walker, took a called third strike.

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