After coming off a 15-inning loss at Colorado the night before, another extra-inning affair wasn’t what a weary St. Louis Cardinals team needed.

Fighting to maintain control of the lead in the NL Central, the Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers Friday night on Carlos Beltran’s sacrifice fly in the 10th inning, preserving their roost atop the division.

”Getting taken into extra innings isn’t what we were looking for, but what a win,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. ”That would be a pretty tough one to eat when you have the two-run lead. It was just a great, great win.”

The Cardinals hold a two-game lead over Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. The Reds downed the Pirates 6-5 in 10 innings to move into a tie for second place.

”That says a lot about this club the way we responded. It was a huge win and we needed that one,” said Matt Carpenter, who had three hits and a walk in six plate appearances. ”Every game is crucial.”

Matt Adams, who has been plagued by right elbow soreness and was fitted for a brace before the game, smacked a towering two-run, ninth-inning home run to give the Cardinals a 6-4 lead, but the Brewers rallied for two runs in the bottom of the frame to tie the game.

Adam’s blast to right-center field came off Brewers’ closer Jim Henderson, who walked Matt Holliday to start the inning.

Former Brewers closer John Axford (7-7), acquired by St. Louis last month, picked up the win. Carlos Martinez got his first save of the year for the Cardinals.

”Coming back here to Miller Park, I was definitely nervous in the pen, but when I was out there on the mound I was calm,” Axford said. ”We needed that win.”

Michael Blazek (0-1), whom the Brewers received in the deal for Axford, took the loss. Beltran’s fly ball to deep right field off Blazek scored Kolten Wong, who led off the 10th with a walk.

Matheny was impressed with Axford’s composure.

”He was sharp, looked good and (got) a real big double play ball for us. It was pretty impressive how he could maintain and do that under that kind of pressure.”

Trailing by two runs in the bottom of the ninth, the Brewers got a leadoff double from Jeff Bianchi and he later scored on a single by pinch-hitter Logan Schafer. The Brewers added another run on Aramis Ramirez’s slow roller off Axford. Carlos Gomez grounded into an inning-ending double play to send the game to extra innings.

”I was just trying to get a groundball and get us back in the dugout,” Axford said. ”I would have preferred to have gotten the save as opposed to the win, but it worked out.”

Axford came on in relief of closer Edward Mujica, whom the Brewers tagged for three hits and two runs in one-third of an inning.

”We are trying to get our closer right. We are one groundball away from turning a double play,” Matheny said. ”We turn a double play, he gets a save, we get a win and he is feeling pretty good about himself. It didn’t happen tonight. We hurt for him.”

The Cardinals jumped on Brewers’ starter Johnny Hellweg for a run in the first inning on Matt Holliday’s single.

Ramirez hit a three-run home run with one out in the Brewers’ half of the first off Shelby Miller, who entered the game having given up just three earned runs over 25 innings in four previous starts against the Brewers this season.

”It was a hanging breaking ball that didn’t finish,” Miller said. ”Obviously a bad way to start off the first inning. Other than that, we settled in and battled as much as we could. At the end of the day it was a huge win for us.”

Miller surrendered seven hits and four runs in six innings. He walked two and struck out four.

Hellweg gave up seven hits and two runs over in an erratic five-inning stint. He walked five, struck out one, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch.

”He looked pretty good today,” Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. ”He faced a really good lineup. He also got ground balls when he needed them and got double plays. That’s what he does.”

— Associated Press —

The Colorado Rockies are giving Todd Helton a thrilling curtain call to his 17-year career.

Corey Dickerson’s RBI triple with one out in the bottom of the 15th inning gave the Rockies a 7-6 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday.

Charlie Blackmon finished with four hits and Troy Tulowitzki and Helton homered for the Rockies in tying the second-longest game in Coors Field history.

Matt Holliday had three hits for the Cardinals, who had their NL Central Division lead over Pittsburgh trimmed to one game. The Pirates beat San Diego 10-1 on Thursday.

“We control our own fate here,” Cardinals infielder Pete Kozma said. “Losing games like this hurts a little bit. We still got to play. We keep on playing the way we have been, we’ll be OK.”

The game took 5 hours, 9 minutes and depleted both bullpens and benches in what became a game of attrition. St. Louis used 10 pitchers and five bench players but still came away on the losing end.

“You look on the other side, that’s got to be a tough game for them,” Tulowitzki said. “To play that many innings, lose, we’ll see if that affects them. Just being a baseball fan you want to see if that affects them down the stretch.”

In the first inning, Helton tagged out Matt Carpenter at first with the hidden-ball trick. After Roy Oswalt threw to first, Helton feigned a throw back to the mound and tagged Carpenter when he stepped off the bag to end the inning.

“(Oswalt) picked over the time before and threw it back and turned around and watched him step off the back of the bag,” Helton said. “I was hoping he was going to pick again and he did. It worked. It’s never worked. I’ve done it five or six times, giving it a half-hearted effort. I can’t believe it worked. It’s one of those things I wanted to do my whole career.”

The game contained many twists besides the hidden-ball trick. There were two late-inning comebacks by Colorado and a dramatic home run to send the game into extra innings by the Rockies first baseman who is entering the last 10 days of his career.

“It doesn’t (get any better), especially with it being Todd’s last week and his home run to keep us in the game,” Dickerson said.

The dramatic finish, however, belonged to Colorado’s young players.

DJ LeMahieu started the winning rally with a one-out single to right off Fernando Salas (0-3). Dickerson then drilled a line drive into the right-field corner as LeMahieu rounded the bases. The relay from second baseman Carpenter beat LeMahieu but catcher Yadier Molina couldn’t control the ball as LeMahieu crawled to touch home.

It was Dickerson’s second triple of the game and sixth of the season. Rob Scahill (1-0), Colorado’s 10th pitcher, got the win.

“That late in the game, you have to take that chance,” Dickerson said of LeMahieu’s dash home. “I was already going to be on third for Tulo. That was a good chance right there.”

The Cardinals loaded the bases in the 15th but Kozma hit into a double play to end the inning.

“We had plenty of chances throughout that whole game,” Kozma said. “That was probably our best chance.”

It capped a long day in which the teams traded late-game rallies.

Helton, who struck out with the bases loaded to end Wednesday’s game, turned on Edward Mujica’s fastball Thursday, sending an 0-1 offering into the Rockies bullpen to lead off the ninth and tie it at 6-all.

It was Mujica’s fourth blown save in 41 chances.

“Everyone remembers the hit that wins the game but the hit that ties the game is as clutch as it gets,” manager Walt Weiss said.

Holliday hit his former team hard, going 8 for 21 with a home run, four walks and four RBIs in the series. He reached base in six straight at-bats Thursday and was poised to be the hero with his RBI single in the ninth before Helton tied it with his 14th home run of the season.

It was part of a back-and-forth that saw the Cardinals rally from four runs down but blow two late leads.

Trailing 4-0, the Cardinals got within a run in the fourth. Oswalt walked the first two batters, Carlos Beltran singled to score Jon Jay and Holliday came home on a sacrifice fly.

Tony Cruz doubled off the wall in left to make it 4-3.

Holliday tied it at 4-all with an RBI single in the fifth.

“We’ve seen this team do that pretty consistently through this season,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said of the comeback. “That tells about the character of this club, and I think it’s going to serve us well as we move closer toward the end here and hopefully we have a real strong finish.”

David Freese gave the Cardinals a 5-4 lead in the eighth with an RBI double to center, but Colorado tied it in the bottom of the inning on Dickerson’s two-out triple.

Helton helped the Rockies take an early lead with a leadoff double in the second, his 588th career two-bagger. He moved to third on Charlie Culberson’s infield single and scored on Yorvit Torrealba’s blooper to right.

Culberson scored on a double play to make it 2-0.

Tulowitzki’s two-run homer in the third made it 4-0. It was his 23rd of the season.

— Associated Press —