Cardinals 6, Brewers 3: Ivan Herrera Doubles Home a Big Fourth

The lead

May 4, 2026 - St. Louis - The St. Louis Cardinals grabbed an early lead and layered on insurance through the late innings, beating the Milwaukee Brewers 6-3 behind Kyle Leahy’s 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball, Ivan Herrera’s three RBI, and a bullpen bridge that ended with Riley O’Brien’s 10th save, per ESPN.

JJ Wetherholt went 2-for-4 with two RBI, Masyn Winn scored twice and added an RBI single, and Milwaukee’s Jackson Chourio went 4-for-4 in his first game back from an injured-list stint that began on opening day after the World Baseball Classic.

How the game turned

The Cardinals struck in the second when Winn singled to center and scored on Wetherholt’s base hit, staking Leahy (4-3) an advantage he would not surrender. Herrera’s bases-loaded double in the fourth stretched the lead to 4-0 and shifted Milwaukee into catch-up mode against a starter locating his secondaries.

The Brewers scratched a run in the sixth on Luis Rengifo’s RBI single scoring Jake Bauers, yet went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position overall—a cold night for traffic conversion despite Chourio’s perfect box score line.

Brice Turang homered in the ninth—his fifth of the season—to pull Milwaukee within 6-3, but the deficit stayed academic after St. Louis tacked single runs in the seventh and eighth on Winn’s RBI knock and Wetherholt’s single plating Victor Scott II.

Chad Patrick (2-2) took the loss for Milwaukee after four runs on seven hits in 3 1/3 innings with three walks and four strikeouts—a short outing that forced an early bullpen tax on a road trip the Brewers hoped to balance with rotation length.

Pitching and matchup notes

Leahy struck out five, walked two, and scattered six hits, providing the bridge innings that let the Cardinals avoid overworking high-leverage arms in the series opener. O’Brien’s two-out cameo secured the final outs for a staff that prioritized contact management over eye-popping velocity readings.

Patrick’s control wobbles—three free passes—fed a Cardinals lineup that excels at long counts once the first run crosses.

Bats that changed the board

Herrera’s double was the evening’s biggest blow, turning a promising inning into a crooked number. Wetherholt and Winn kept pressure on Milwaukee’s middle relievers with sequential RBI swings that mirrored the club’s contact-heavy identity.

Chourio’s 4-for-4 effort offered Brewers fans a silver lining on his return, yet without supporting hits from the heart of the order, his night amounted to individual brilliance inside a team loss.

AthX Engine fantasy angle

St. Louis tied for fifth on the May 4 AthX Engine team board at 12 team FP, matching Tampa Bay’s total while using a different blueprint—spread-out scoring rather than one early homer. Kyle Leahy’s 12.33 pitching FP reflects a quality-start profile rewarded by AthX Engine even when the strikeout column stays modest. Daily fantasy totals are separate from dynamic pricing.

What comes next

Brandon Sproat and Andre Pallante were scheduled for Tuesday’s rematch, per ESPN. Milwaukee must convert Chourio’s spark into rallies; St. Louis will lean on its cadre of young bats to keep padding a division record that improved to 21-14 on the ESPN line.

*Sources: MLB.com schedule, MLB Gameday, ESPN recap, Associated Press via ESPN, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*