Rookie Carlson homers twice, Cardinals beat Brewers 4-3

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Rookie Dylan Carlson hit two go-ahead home runs, one from each side of the plate, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 on Thursday.

Carlson’s homers made a winner out of J.A. Happ, who entered the game 0-3 in his last five starts against the Brewers. Happ (10-8) gave up 3 runs on 9 hits and struck out 7 in 6 1/3 innings, his longest outing since St. Louis acquired him from the Minnesota Twins on July 30.

“It was nice to kind of be in a different situation today where I was allowed to kind of get out there and stay out there and try to get us a little deeper, and you know (Dylan Carlson) had a huge game today, defensively and offensively,” Happ said.

Kodi Whitley and T.J. McFarland combined for two innings of scoreless relief and Luís Garcia earned his second save as the Cardinals won the rubber game of the series after having their franchise record 17-game winning streak snapped the night before. The streak lifted the Cardinals into next week’s NL wild-card game against the Los Angeles Dodgers or San Francisco.

“We got some good vibes going in there and everyone’s kind of feeding off of and staying consistent and obviously it’s translating to the performance and just having fun with it, honestly,” Carlson said.

Batting from the left side, Carlson smacked a 93-mph pitch from Milwaukee reliever Miguel Sánchez (2-1) into right field for a two-run homer to give the Cardinals a 4-3 lead in the sixth.

It was the second career multi-homer game for the 22-year-old, who also went deep from both sides of the plate against the San Diego Padres on Sept. 17. The Cardinals said Carlson is the first rookie in MLB history to homer from both sides of the plate in the same game multiple times in a single season, citing Elias Sports Bureau.

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source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Rookie-Carlson-homers-twice-Cardinals-beat-16500327.php