MILWAUKEE — A concentrated dose of dominance from starter Sonny Gray and a steady stream of offense was not enough to firewall the Cardinals from their own generosity in the late innings.

Hit batters and walks plunged the Cardinals into extra innings against the Brewers, and the division leaders are ones to turn down the assistance.

Andruw Monasterio delivered a walk-off single in the 10th inning to complete Milwaukee’s comeback for a 9-8 victory Saturday night at American Family Field. Milwaukee’s 11th walk-off win of the season came hours after the Cardinals led by as many as five runs.

They’ve now lost five consecutive games.

Milwaukee loaded the bases before the Cardinals could get an out in the eighth inning, and in the ninth the Brewers got their first RBI base hit of the game. JoJo Romero walked three batters in the eighth to cause the initial problems. Riley O’Brien then hit two batters in the ninth to stock the bases with trouble. He allowed two RBI singles and failed to record an out.

With a series of walks and hit batters, the Cardinals invited the opportunistic Milwaukee Brewers to author a predictably stunning comeback. Milwaukee scored five times in the eighth and ninth innings combined.

Three of those runs were put on base by walk or hit batter.

Kyle Leahy piloted the Cardinals out of turbulence in the ninth by striking out Christian Yelich with the winning run in scoring position and limiting the damage to send the game into extra innings.

The Cardinals did not capitalize on a walk and a hit batter in the 10th inning to do anything more than score the baserunner they were given by rules, not the Brewers. That left them vulnerable to Milwaukee’s ability to generate offense without help.

To build the Cardinals’ lead, designated hitter Ivan Herrera drilled three hits off Brewers phenom Jacob Misiriowski. That included a home run to start the Cardinals’ scoring and a double in the fifth inning to continue it. In his first start at shortstop since Masyn Winn went on the injured list, Thomas Saggese had three hits. His single in the top of the ninth answered the Brewers’ missed chance to really drain the Cardinals’ lead one inning earlier.

Gray struck out eight in five innings and allowed only two runs.

Before the first pitch of Saturday’s game, the Brewers clinched a playoff berth and had merchandise celebrating another October in Cream City hanging at the team store.

Milwaukee’s seventh playoff appearance in the past eight years was secured with the New York Mets’ loss Saturday, their eighth consecutive loss as they tumbled into a real wild-card mosh pit. The Cardinals are close enough to get bruised by it — maybe even yanked into it. Just 3 1/2 games back of the Mets at the start of Saturday’s game, the Cardinals have six games remaining against two teams ahead of them in the mix — three against Cincinnati starting Monday and three a week later in San Francisco.

The Brewers first threatened to tie the game in the eighth when lefty Romero walked a total of three batters. Two of those walks combined with a leadoff single to load the bases before the first out of the inning. That brought the tying run to the plate.

Milwaukee could not get the breakthrough hit — not until the ninth.

Romero kept Contreras in yard with a flyout to center, and then he got the groundout from left-handed-hitting Yelich to further ice the inning. The go-ahead run would get to the plate before lefty Romero retired another lefty batter.

Milwaukee’s first four runs scored on outs, three on sacrifice flies.

Gray thrives through five

There were several innings during Gray’s start when the Brewers looked hapless against the right-hander’s sweeping slider.

Given that he pitched five innings that was actually in most innings.

Gray set the tone for his start immediately as he struck out the side in order in the first inning and did so on 16 pitches. Two of the strikeouts Gray finished with a sweeper. The other one ended with a cutter set up by the existence of the sweeper.

The Cardinals’ right-hander had three perfect innings in his five. He nearly struck out the side for a second time in the fourth inning, and he set it up in a familiar way. He struck out Contreras, Willson’s younger brother, with an 84.7-mph sweeper, and then he followed by getting Christian Yelich to swing over an 85.3-mph pitch. The pitch is so effective at its best that Gray uses it to defy hitters on both sides of the plate. Contreras is a right-handed batter. Yelich, the two-time batting champion and former MVP, is a left-handed batter.

Neither had the reach to clip the sweeper.

The seven strikeouts through four innings and eight after five did inflate his pitch count. He began the sixth with 90 pitches already thrown and clearly a limited amount left. Gray walked the first batter and before that batter could pass his gear off to the bat boy, manager Oli Marmol was striding toward the mound to relieve Gray.

The walk, Gray’s first of the game, was only the fifth baserunner allowed by the Cardinals’ starter.

The runner would come around to score three batters after Gray’s final pitch.

Both of the runs scored against Gray came on sacrifice fly balls.

Meet 'The Miz': Take 2

The first big league team to get an eyeful of the Brewers’ rookie sensation who rode a 103-mph fastball to an All-Star Game invite, the Cardinals got their second chance Saturday.

Back on June 12 in Milwaukee, Misiorowski made his big league debut with his lean, lanky frame and overpowering velocity. He struck out five in five scoreless innings as the Brewers shut out the Cardinals, and “The Miz” was on his way to toward a last-minute invite from MLB’s commissioner to be on the National League All-Star team.

Three months later, the Cardinals got their first run on the young right-hander.

And fast.

Herrera, the second batter of the game, crushed the first pitch he saw for a solo homer and the swift, 1-0, lead. Herrera turned on a 101.3-mph fastball for the ball he sent sizzling over let field. The ball traveled an estimated 394 feet.

Two batters later, Misiorowski plunked Willson Contreras in the back with a 101.4-mph fastball. Contreras had just hugged his brother, Milwaukee catcher William Contreras, at the plate moments before wearing a fastball against his numbers. Contreras winched and then walked to first with his league-leading 22nd hit by pitch. He wasn’t there for long before bolting around the bases to score on Lars Nootbaar’s RBI double.

Nootbaar sent a 99-mph fastball from Misiorowski hurtling into the left-center gap for the second extra-base hit of the inning against the young right-hander.

The Cardinals would finish with seven hits off “The Miz.”

Four of them went for extra bases.

In the third inning, Brendan Donovan hit his first home run since returning from the injured list. Donovan pulled an 87-mph off-speed pitch over the right-field wall. Donovan’s 10th homer of the season came on a 0-2 pitch and pushed the Cardinals out to a 3-0 lead.

Like in his big league debut, Misiorowski pitched five innings against the Cardinals. But unlike the first game in the majors, the Blue Springs, Mo., native did not buzz through the Cardinals’ lineup. He allowed four runs on seven hits and struck out four. For only the second time in his 13 big league starts, Misiorowski allowed two homers.

Cards increase lead on Milwaukee mistakes

Saggese, the Cardinals’ shortstop with Winn on the IL to close out the year, had his second multi-hit game of the week and sparked the Cardinals’ second extended rally of the game.

Saggese’s leadoff double in the sixth inning greeted reliever Grant Anderson.

What followed the Brewers brought on themselves.

A flair to left field dropped between two fielders when one — left fielder Isaac Collins — appeared to call the ball. The other — shortstop Joey Ortiz — peeled off only to then watch the ball touch grass for a single by Pedro Pages. Saggese scored one batter later on Victor Scott II’s sacrifice fly. At first due to the dropped popup, Pages got to third on an error by the third baseman, and he scored on a wild pitch.

Pages’ run moved the Cardinals to a 6-1 lead.

Hey, isn’t that Erick Fedde?

A Cardinals starter at the beginning of the year, Erick Fedde emerged in the seventh inning Saturday as a reliever for the playoff-bound Brewers.

The Cardinals traded for Fedde in 2024 and then dropped Fedde from the roster almost a year later to clear a spot for rookie Michael McGreevy in the rotation. Hungry for any healthy pitching, Atlanta traded for Fedde. He made five appearances for Atlanta and then received his release from them, too. Milwaukee signed him as a free agent.

The seventh inning Saturday was Fedde’s fourth appearance with Milwaukee.

He retired his former teammates in order for a scoreless seventh. The first two outs of the inning were groundouts, just like he got at his best with the Cardinals. The eighth began with some of the same issues Fedde had with the Cardinals. He walked the first two batters. And that was that. The Brewers went to another reliever.

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