[rink23]

Record: 72-45, 1st, 9.5 GA Cedar Rapids
Tied 4-4, St. Louis got back-to-back home runs from Jared Thomas (two-run shot) and Rick Scott to open the door for a four runs innings, as the River Walkers went on to defeat Milwaukee 9-6 at Busch Stadium (1997).
Both homers came off Crushers reliever Scott Mueller.
Jose Ramirez drew a lead-off walk to open the inning, but was thrown out when Steve Rossi swung-and-miss on a hit-and-run.
But Rossi did single putting him on base when Thomas connected with two outs in his second homer of the game.
Thomas had gone deep off Milwaukee starter Adam George in the second inning to open scoring. It also was worth two runs.
Scott followed Thomas' second homer with his 25th homer of the season to make it 7-4.
The Walkers added two more runs later in the inning off Allan Stephany, all of it coming, like the homers, with two outs.
Jean Carmona doubled and scored when pinch-hitter Ben Thompson tripled.
Nathaniel Dixon drove home Thompson with another double, one of his four hits in the game.
After Thomas' two-run homer in the second, St. Louis added another run later in the inning.
Jean Carmona singled with one out and moved to third when pitcher Izzy San Juan doubled.
Dixon scored Carmona with a single.
Milwaukee charged back to go up 4-3 with a pair of homers off San Juan in the fourth.
They also were back-to-back.
Cayden Wallace struck first with a three-run bomb.
Erik Rivera quickly broke the 3-3 tie with a 420-foot shot to right field.
St. Louis tied it at 4-4 in the fifth on an RBI single from Dixon, who finished with three RBIs.
It scored Carmona, who had singled off reliever Daniel Martinez with one out.
A single from pinch-hitter Heston Kjerstad moved him to third, in position for Dixon to drive him home.
San Juan pitched 5.2 innings, allowing four runsin six hits. He struck out five and walked one.
Elian Acosta got the final out of the fifth inning, striking out Rivera with a runner on second.
Yeison Santos (0.2 IP), and Josh Grissom (0.1) combined on a scoreless seventh.
That put Grissom (2-0) in position to earn the win.
Andres Hernandez worked a scoreless eighth but gave up a couple of runs in the ninth, and was eventually forced to leave in favor of closer Ernesto Barbosa.
With runners on first and second, Barbosa struck out pinch-hitter Bret Baty to earn his 18th save.