Mike Moustakas blasted a three-run homer to lead the visiting Milwaukee Brewers to a rain-shortened 5-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night.
The game, which was halted in the middle of the eighth inning, brought Brewers manager Craig Counsell relief on his 49th birthday. His team had lost six of its last eight games overall and six straight to the Cardinals.
Keston Hiura contributed a RBI single and a run-scoring double to support Brewers starting pitcher Adrian Houser (6-5), who allowed three runs (one earned) in 5 1/3 innings.
Houser has allowed just three earned runs in 18 1/3 innings in his last three starts.
The Cardinals fell into second place in the National League Central, a half-game behind the Chicago Cubs. Starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (9-9) suffered the loss after allowing five runs in five innings.
The Brewers hit around against him in first inning. Lorenzo Cain led off with a single, his fourth hit in five at-bats since recovering from oblique soreness.
Cain moved up on Yasmani Grandal's single and scored on Hiura's one-out RBI single. Then Moustakas launched a 0-2 curveball into the right field seats for his 31st homer to give the Brewers a quick 4-0 lead.
Hiura struck again in the fourth, following Christian Yelich's two-out infield single with a RBI double to push the lead to 5-0.
The Brewers let the Cardinals back in the game with a pair of errors in the bottom of the fifth inning. Dexter Fowler drove in one run with a RBI single and Yairo Munoz cut the Brewers' lead to 5-2 by scoring on Grandal's errant pick-off throw.
Fowler has driven home 13 runs in his last 10 games.
The Cardinals continued their comeback in the sixth. With one out, Marcell Ozuna and Paul DeJong reached on singles and Yadier Molina ripped a RBI double into the left field corner to score Ozuna and cut the lead to 5-3.
But the Brewers bullpen snuffed out the rally. Alex Claudio relieved Houser and struck out Matt Carpenter. Matt Albers relieved Claudio and struck out Harrison Bader to strand the would-be tying runs in scoring position.
--Field Level Media
