MILWAUKEE — The St. Louis Cardinals, who spent so much of the season with comebacks as their calling card, had one last threat in them late in their final game of the season.

They’ll have to wait to pull off their next one, however.

The Cardinals stirred from quiet seven innings at the start of the end of their season for four runs in the eighth inning but were unable to overtake the lead Milwaukee established early. Sort of like the Brewers did to every other team in the National League Central. Milwaukee jumped to a six-run lead by the end of the fourth and held on for a 6-4 victory Sunday at American Family Field.

The Cardinals finish their season winless in Wisconsin.

The Brewers won all six games they hosted against their division rivals, and contributed to the Cardinals limping finish. St. Louis lost eight of their final 10 games to finish the season 77-85, one win fewer than they had a year ago.

The Cardinals’ 135th season in the National League ends with them outside of the postseason for the fourth consecutive year.

They finished 26 games behind the 103-win, division-champ Brewers.

The offseason begins Monday with staff meetings and then its into the unknown of a winter that could be iced-over by the expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and a work stoppage.

Held scoreless for nearly six innings by Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski and seven innings total by Miz & Co., the Cardinals sent a chill through the crowd of 43,556, the largest of the season at American Family. What began with a leadoff triple climaxed with rookie Leo Bernal’s three-run homer that pulled the Cardinals within two runs.

Bernal’s fifth home run since his promotion a month ago gave him 21 RBIs.

The Cardinals were in position to attempt for their 35th comeback victory of the season and only the ninth time they did so after trailing going into the eighth inning.

Rincon gets his moment

The inning the Cardinals wanted to find for rookie Hancel Rincon arrived in the eighth just moments after the Cardinals had tightened the game on the scoreboard.

Rincon’s previous major-league appearances were warped by an umpire confronting him about the tilt of his cap and the trouble that Coors Field can cause for any pitchers, let alone young pitchers making their major-league debuts. At the start of the final series of their season, the Cardinals promoted Rincon hours after the started for Class AAA Memphis and wanted to get him a different experience in the majors.

That they did.

Rincon pitched a scoreless eighth and struck out two batters, including former MVP Christian Yelich. Rincon retired all three batters he faced and held the Cardinals’ deficit to two runs to set up the ninth.

‘The Miz’ puts polish on Cy season

The Brewers' young ace Misiorowski put the finishing polish on what’s likely going to be a Cy Young season for him.

Misiorowski (16-5) authored 5 1/3 shutout innings to finish the regular season on a streak of three consecutive starts without allowing a run.

He ended his summer with a strikeout of Jordan Walker.

And then he walked off the mound to an ovation from the largest crowd of the season at American Family Field.

In his second season in the majors, Misiorowski, who has rewritten the kind of velocity that can be expected and sustained by a starter, shaved his ERA down to a final 1.80. That leads the majors and is the lowest to lead the majors since Justin Verlander’s 1.75 ERA in 2022. Misiorowski’s is the lowest ERA for the NL leader since Jacob deGrom’s 1.70 in 2018. And with five strikeouts from the Cardinals on Sunday, he finished with 252.

Only one pitcher in Milwaukee history, Ben Sheets with 264 in 2004, has had more.

Misiorowski offered the Cardinals minimal opportunity to put their final dent in his ERA. He struck out two of the first four batters he faced before allowing a hit to slip through. He walked two Cardinals but neither of them got as far as second base against the right-hander.

When he walked Bernal to open the fourth inning, Misiorowski sped through the inning with a strikeout and a double play.

He got his 16 outs from 19 batters.

Rocky beginning for Andre Pallante

Issues with the PitchCom reception at the beginning of his start were the least of Pallante’s troubles in the first inning. Between the time he got the technology sorted out and collected his first out, the Brewers laced four consecutive singles against him.

Milwaukee led 2-0 before Pallante got a ground ball to become a groundout.

The constant pressure that the Brewers applied throughout the previous two games of the series arrived early and did not abate in the first inning as they took a 3-0 lead on the Cardinals.

Six of the first seven batters singled.

And it took a double play groundout to escape.

Pallante found his footing – for the most part – from there. The right-hander and leading winner from the Cardinals’ rotation this season, thrives and survives with meek contact, and part of his game is inviting balls in play for quick outs. The Brewers scooped that plan by lifting some of his signature pitches and dropping them in the grass for hits. In the second inning, two of those balls lifted by the Brewers found fielders and that allowed Pallante to get through the second without Milwaukee adding to its lead.

In the third, Gary Sanchez blistered a pitch for a two-run homer that continued to widen the lead on the Cardinals and spoil the finale of Pallante’s season.

By the time he finished his appointed five innings, Pallante had allowed six runs on 109 hits. He walked only one batter, and that Brewer actually didn’t score. In the fourth inning, Milwaukee got a slow roller down the third-base line that hugged the grass and stayed fair for a base hit. The walk did move that runner into scoring position for Jackson Chourio’s third single of the game. But Pallante stemmed the rally there with a groundout that found a glove.

Pallante (12-9) began the final day of the Cardinals’ season with a 3.61 ERA and ended it with a 3.83 ERA. He’s one of three starters who have been in the rotation the entire summer to have pitched at least 140 innings and have an ERA less than 4.00.

He finished with 162 innings.

Walker takes aim at 30, gets 102

Walker batted leadoff for Game No. 162 to give him as many plate appearances as possible to hit his 30th home run of the season.

In the eighth, he produced the Cardinals’ first run for his 102nd RBI.

Cesar Prieto began the eighth with a leadoff triple, and when the lineup bent back around to get leadoff Walker his fourth at-bat of the game, he delivered an RBI with a ball in play. Milwaukee failed to spin a double play on Walker’s ground ball, and an error gave him second. Prieto scored on the play for the RBI. Two batters after Walker, Bernal crushed his homer that started to change the Cardinals’ approach to the game as they trailed by two.

Rincon slowed his warmup in the bullpen.

Veteran setup man Ryne Stanek started getting ready.

The Cardinals didn’t get the lead for him.

Rincon got the bottom of the eighth.

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