Wade Miley, J.B. Bukauskas and Julio Teheran combined on a six-hitter as the visiting Milwaukee Brewers blanked the St. Louis Cardinals 6-0 on Thursday to inch closer to the National League Central title.

Victor Caratini hit a three-run homer and Blake Perkins hit a solo shot for the Brewers (87-66), who reduced their magic number to win the division to three games. Milwaukee is closing in on its fifth playoff appearance in six seasons.

The Cardinals (67-86) have lost three straight games and five of their last seven.

Miley (9-4) allowed three hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in six innings. Bukauskas gave up two hits in one inning and Teheran handled the last two frames to complete the shutout.

Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas (7-13) allowed six runs (five earned) on nine hits in five innings. He struck out four and walked one.

Mikolas dodged major trouble in the first inning. Sal Frelick led off the game with a single, then William Contreras grounded into a double play. Mark Canha followed with a double and Willy Adames walked, but Rowdy Tellez grounded out to strand the runners.

The Cardinals stranded two runners of their own in the second inning. Jordan Walker walked with one out and raced to third on Jose Fermin's two-out single, but Miley struck out Masyn Winn to end the threat.

Perkins broke the scoreless tie in third inning with his homer, his third of the season.

Sloppy Cardinals fielding helped the Brewers increase their lead to 2-0 in the fifth inning.

Brice Turang led off by reaching third base on two errors by Walker in right field. First Walker failed to catch Turang's fly ball, then he made a wild throw back to the infield.

Frelick hit a foul popup that catcher Andrew Knizner lost in the sun, then made the most of his second chance with an RBI single.

The Brewers pushed their lead to 6-0 in the sixth inning. Adames hit a double, moved to third on Tellez's single and scored on Andruw Monasterio's single.

Caratini followed with a three-run blast, his seventh homer of the season, to put the game away.

--Field Level Media