Christian Yelich homered and drove in a career-high six runs as the Milwaukee Brewers moved closer to clinching a playoff spot with a 12-4 victory over the host St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night.

Yelich laced a three-run triple in the fourth inning and slugged a three-run blast in the ninth. The National League MVP candidate leads the league with a .321 batting average and has 33 homers and 104 RBIs.

Ryan Braun hit two homers for his 31st career multi-homer game to help Milwaukee win for the fifth time in the past six games and move within a half-game of the Chicago Cubs (91-66) in the NL Central race. The Brewers (91-67) hold possession of the NL's first wild-card spot by 3 1/2 games over the Rockies (87-70). The Cardinals (87-71) sit a half-game behind Colorado.

Jesus Aguilar went 3-for-5 with his 34th homer, and his shot in the opening inning was followed by Braun's first blast. Braun also hammered a two-run homer in the eighth inning.

Yadier Molina hit a three-run homer, and Marcell Ozuna went 3-for-3 with a walk for the Cardinals (87-71). St. Louis is battling Colorado for the NL's second wild card.

Brewers right-hander Taylor Williams (1-3), who gave up two hits in one inning but worked out of a jam in the fifth, was given credit for the victory.

Aguilar smacked a 2-0 slider from left-hander Austin Gomber (6-2) over the fence in right, and Braun followed by swatting a 1-1 changeup over the wall in left as the Brewers quickly took a 2-0 edge.

Milwaukee increased the lead to three in the fourth inning when pitcher Gio Gonzalez hit a two-out single to center.

Later in the inning, Yelich cleared the bases with his line drive three-bagger into the right-center-field gap to make it 6-0.

Molina hit his three-run shot off Gonzalez in the bottom of the inning to cut the St. Louis deficit in half.

Manny Pina delivered a run-scoring single in the top of the fifth as Milwaukee increased its lead to 7-3.

The Cardinals got the run back in the bottom of the inning on Paul DeJong's sacrifice fly.

Aguilar hit a two-out single in the eighth before Braun deposited a drive into the seats in left-center field to make it 9-4. Yelich added his three-run blast in the following inning.

Gonzalez allowed three runs and three hits in four innings for the Brewers. The left-hander struck out two and walked two.

Gomber gave up five runs and seven hits over 3 2/3 innings. He struck out six and didn't walk anyone.

--Field Level Media