Yadier Molina and the St. Louis Cardinals are back in the playoff picture.

Molina had three hits, including a three-run double, and the Cardinals beat the slumping Atlanta Braves 6-3 on Sunday to complete a three-game series sweep.

The Cardinals pulled within 4½ games of NL wild card-leading Atlanta and remained six games back of Central-leading Milwaukee They have 16 games left and open a three-game set in Pittsburgh on Monday.

The Braves start a three-game series with the Marlins on Monday and have 15 games remaining.

“I feel like we are (in the race) if we keep winning,” St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. “It’s exciting baseball. Guys have come through all over the roster. We got a shot.”

The Cardinals know they have left themselves no margin for error.

“It doesn’t mean anything if you go and you don’t have a good road trip,” first baseman Albert Pujols said. “We’re just going to continue playing and at the end of the road trip we’ll see where we are.”

Atlanta has dropped seven straight games at Busch Stadium and hasn’t won in St. Louis since Sept. 13, 2009. The Braves lost six of eight on their road trip.

“We did nothing right,” Braves star Chipper Jones said of the road stint.

Jake Westbrook (12-8) allowed two runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings for the Cardinals. Jason Motte pitched a scoreless ninth for his fifth save in eight chances.

“It was a good win for us,” Westbrook said. “I would have liked to have gotten deeper in the game and saved our bullpen a little bit but that just wasn’t the case.”

St. Louis got to Tim Hudson (14-10) for five runs in the third, taking advantage of a lapse in control by the right-hander. Hudson plunked Daniel Descalso leading off the inning, and hit Jon Jay with another pitch with two down, leaving runners on the corners.

Pujols hit an RBI single before Hudson issued consecutive walks to Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman, forcing home a run. Molina then cleared the bases with a double to right, making it 5-0.

Hudson was charged with six runs and eight hits in six innings.

“I made my bed,” Hudson said. “I set them up for an inning and I just didn’t make good pitches. They had good at-bats and made me pay for it.”

Jones did hit a solo drive in the eighth for his 17th homer of the season and No. 453 for his career, moving him ahead of Carl Yastrzemski and into 33rd place. Freddie Freeman singled in a run for Atlanta, and pinch-hitter Matt Diaz had a sacrifice fly.

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said his team needs to regroup a bit after playing eight road games in seven days.

“It feels like we’re close offensively,” Gonzalez said. “Let’s just go home, lick our wounds a little bit and go get them.”

— Associated Press —

Nick Punto’s alter ego is The Shredder, a maniac who rips dress shirts right off a teammates’ torso.

“It’s been known to happen on occasion,” the St. Louis Cardinals’ utilityman said. “I’ve actually shredded people’s dress shirts on airplane flights.”

Teammates returned the favor after Punto’s game-winning sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the 10th inning beat the Atlanta Braves 4-3 on Friday night. During the ensuing celebration on the field, they tore off Punto’s jersey.

“I guess that was payback,” Punto said. “It’s a celebration of friendship, good friends.”

Albert Pujols’ two-run single with two outs in the ninth off Craig Kimbrel tied it for the Cardinals, who kept alive faint postseason hopes.

“Our season is not over,” Pujols said. “All we can do is go out there and give it our best and hopefully at the end we can look back and say we gave it our best this year.”

Pujols had three hits and his hit just inside the first-base line with two outs in the ninth ended Kimbrel’s streak of 25 consecutive saves. The Cardinals loaded the bases on a hit and two walks for Pujols, who is 4 for 10 with 11 RBIs with the bases loaded.

“Whenever you put guys on for free, it seems like it always comes back to get you,” Kimbrel said. “I hung a pitch there at the end and he kept it inside the line.

“I made a mistake and he made me pay for it.”

Pujols is batting .298 and has 87 RBIs with 18 games to go. He’s batted .300 with 100 RBIs each of his 11 seasons.

Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman singled off Scott Linebrink (4-3) to start the 10th and moved up on a sacrifice. Skip Schumaker was intentionally walked before Punto, with a full count, ended it with a line drive to center in his first plate appearance since coming off the 15-day disabled list from an oblique injury.

Punto has been limited to only 48 games and has been on the disabled list three times.

“It’s been a tough year for me, definitely,” Punto said. “To be able to put that ball in play, it was huge.”

Pujols said Punto was among a small group of teammates able to shred shirts. Punto absolved himself of financial obligation.

“The Shredder, he doesn’t pay guys back,” Punto said. “Nick would. I’m a good guy. The Shredder, not so much.”

Kimbrel leads the majors with 43 saves but he got his first blown save since June 14. He had worked 38 consecutive scoreless outings covering 37 2/3 innings, allowing 14 hits and 11 walks with 67 strikeouts.

Jason Motte (4-2) worked a perfect 10th for the Cardinals, who are 6½ games behind the Braves for the NL wild card and seven behind NL-Central leading Milwaukee.

Michael Bourn matched his career best with four hits and an RBI for the Braves, who also got RBI doubles from Brian McCann and Freddie Freeman in the first inning. Chipper Jones was robbed his first two trips by Berkman’s outstanding running catch at the track in right in the first inning and second baseman Skip Schumaker’s leaping grab of a liner in the third. Jones singled in the seventh.

Bourn’s RBI triple off Arthur Rhodes gave the Braves a 3-1 lead.

“That was great against a tough left-handed pitcher,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “Get a triple and get another run, so you feel good.

“But again, you can’t run out the clock. You’ve got to throw it over the plate and get the last out and we just didn’t do that today.”

Randall Delgado was the fourth straight rookie starter for Atlanta and gave up a run and three hits in five innings in his fourth career start. He followed Greg Beachy, Mike Minor and Julio Teheran in the rotation for the Braves, who are without Tommy Hanson (right shoulder tendinitis) and Jair Jurrjens (straight right knee).

Linebrink has allowed six runs in 5 2/3 innings since coming off the disabled list from a lower back strain on Aug 14.

Edwin Jackson shut down the Braves his last five innings, although Atlanta left the bases loaded in the fourth. Rafael Furcal had three walks and a hit, and he was thrown out at second to end the seventh after trying for the extra base on a single after pinch runner Tyler Greene drew a throw to third.

Holliday and Pujols grounded into double plays to boost the Cardinals’ major league-leading total to 154, 12 shy of matching their own NL record set in 1958. Pujols leads the majors with 28 and Holliday is second in the NL with 20, one more than teammate Yadier Molina.

— Associated Press —

Chris Carpenter looked more like a Cy Young award winner than a .500 pitcher against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night.

Carpenter (9-9) pitched a four-hitter to record his 14th career shutout in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 2-0 win.

Rafael Furcal provided the offense with a solo home run but Carpenter needed just 2 hours, 5 minutes for his first shutout since he blanked the Brewers 3-0 exactly two years before in Milwaukee. He struck out five and walked two, one intentional.

After losing the series opener on Monday, the Cardinals won the last two to move within 8 1/2 games of the first-place Brewers in the NL Central with 19 games to play.

The Cardinals are 6 1/2 games behind Atlanta in the wild card race with the Braves coming to St. Louis on Friday to start a three-game series. St. Louis won five of its last six against Milwaukee to earn a season series split (9-9).

“Nice win for us,” Carpenter said. “Going into an off day, with a big series coming up, to be able to get that win against a quality pitcher, a quality club we need to beat, it was a nice win all around and obviously I pitched well.”

Carpenter was 1-2 with a 5.68 ERA in three previous starts this season against Milwaukee. He said the difference was being able to locate his fastball.

“If you can locate your fastball on both sides of the plate, you’re going to have success,” Carpenter said. “If you get the ball in the middle of the plate, you’re not.

“I was able to get quick early outs because I was able to get balls on the corner. These guys obviously are a real nice hitting team.”

Corey Hart, who had his 18-game hitting streak snapped, felt his team was the victim more of bad luck than good pitching.

“We hit balls at people,” Hart said. “Sometimes a pitcher has to be a little lucky to win games. He threw the ball well, but if those balls fall, it’s a different story.”

St. Louis manager Tony La Russa saw a different game.

“Real good stuff, real good location, great concentration,” La Russa said of Carpenter. “He was the whole package tonight.”

The benches and bullpens emptied in the top of the ninth after Carpenter (9-9) struck out Nyjer Morgan. The two had words and Morgan headed toward the mound before being restrained by teammate Prince Fielder. No punches were thrown and Morgan was ejected.

“He’s a good player,” Carpenter said. “He’s a serious talent. He just plays the game a different way. I’m not going to play his game.”

Morgan said Carpenter yelled an expletive at him after the strikeout.

“There’s really nothing to explain,” Morgan said. “I was walking off the field until he said (that).

“Just hard ball. It was kind of a quick hook, but whatever.”

The home run was the third for Furcal in the last seven days against Milwaukee. He went deep twice in Milwaukee last week when the Cardinals swept the Brewers.

Jon Jay went 3 for 4 for his fifth straight multihit game and he has 11 hits in his last 17 at-bats. Albert Pujols was 2 for 4 but grounded into his major league-leading 27th double play.

Lance Berkman doubled to lead off the fourth against Milwaukee’s Zach Greinke (14-6) and scored the game’s first run on Yadier Molina’s sacrifice fly one out later.

Furcal made it 2-0 by leading off the fifth with his seventh home run.

Greinke went seven innings and allowed two runs and eight hits with four strikeouts.

— Associated Press —

Randy Wolf followed a “horrible” outing against St. Louis with one of his best of the season.

The left-hander allowed one run over eight innings and Ryan Braun and Nyjer Morgan homered to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to a 4-1 victory over the Cardinals on Monday.

The Brewers won their fourth straight to move 10 1/2 games ahead of St. Louis in the NL Central, tying their largest lead of the season.

Wolf (12-9) gave up four hits, struck out five and walked two as he improved to 6-1 with a 3.11 ERA in his last eight starts. He allowed two hits over his final six innings and helped his bounce-back effort with two infield singles.

Just five days earlier, Wolf gave up six earned runs and lasted five innings in an 8-3 loss to the Cardinals in Milwaukee, a performance he called, “horrible.”

“That was a tough one to swallow,” Wolf said. “It was rough.”

The eight-inning stint ties Wolf’s longest outing of the season and he erased the memory of his only bad performance during this current eight-start run.

“I just wanted to concentrate on slowing my body down,” Wolf said. “Today, my body was in a position where I could throw off-speed pitches in any count.”

Braun said Wolf looked like a totally different pitcher.

“He made some adjustments and really did a great job,” Braun said. “It starts with our starting pitching and Randy was phenomenal.”

John Axford pitched a perfect ninth to record his 41th save in 43 chances.

Cardinals starter Jake Westbrook (11-8) gave up three runs and nine hits in six innings. He tied a career high with nine strikeouts.

“My off-speed stuff was good,” Westbrook said. “I had a really good changeup.”

St. Louis lost for the third time in the last four games.

The Cardinals were looking to get back into the race. Instead, they find themselves in a deep hole with 21 games remaining.

“This is baseball, you can’t figure it out,” St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols said. “You think we’re not trying? It is what it is. They’re playing well. Give the credit to those guys.”

Westbrook kept his team in the game but the Cardinals couldn’t solve Wolf.

Braun, who went 2 for 5 and leads the league with a .335 average, hit his 27th homer in the third inning to give the Brewers a 2-0 lead.

St. Louis cut the deficit in half in the fifth on a double by David Freese and a double-play groundout from Allen Craig.

Yuniesky Betancourt, who went 3 for 4, drove in a run with a single to left in the sixth.

Morgan added his fourth homer of the season in the seventh off reliever Kyle McClellan.

St. Louis swept the Brewers in Milwaukee last week to climb to within 7 1/2 games. Less than a week later, the lead is back to where it was at the start of that series.

“Those guys beat us pretty bad at our place,” Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke said. “We needed to come back and play a good game. We really played well. We pitched great and made some nice defensive plays.”

Braun said the Brewers needed to bounce back from the three losses to St. Louis. Milwaukee outscored Houston 20-4 in a three-game sweep over the weekend.

“This is definitely a good start to the series,” Braun said. “We feel good about ourselves again.”

Milwaukee’s Corey Hart extended his hitting streak to 17 games with a run-scoring single to deep short in the second.

— Associated Press —

Now, the St. Louis Cardinals have to sweep the Milwaukee Brewers again just to keep a sliver of hope alive.

Rookie Juan Francisco capped a career-best four-hit day with the go-ahead single in the 10th inning and the Cincinnati Reds won 3-2 on Sunday to take two of three from a team desperately trying to stay in contention.

The Cardinals swept a three-game series at Milwaukee right before the Reds came to town, but went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position Sunday to fall 9 1/2 games behind the NL Central leaders with 22 games to go. The Cardinals and Brewers have one last three-game set beginning Monday night in St. Louis.

“If we had been able to win at least two out of three here it would have been a lot more compelling, I guess,” Lance Berkman said. “If we can sweep them again, we can put ourselves at least within the realm of possibility, I guess you could say.”

Jon Jay homered and Daniel Descalso had an RBI triple for the Cardinals, who were only 2 for 20 with men on base and dropped their first series at home against Cincinnati since June 1-3, 2009. They’re 13-3 in series against the Reds at 6-year-old Busch Stadium.

Berkman just missed a two-run homer in the first on a ball caught at the right-field wall and Bronson Arroyo robbed Rafael Furcal of a likely two-run single in the second, taking a liner off his leg but recovering to throw to first.

“To go scoreless like we did, it’s an aggravating, upsetting day,” manager Tony La Russa said. “We got zeros is what I’m looking at. The guys were not happy to get zeros.”

Francisco Cordero went through the heart of St. Louis’ order for his 30th save in 35 chances and 13th in a row, also giving him seven 30-save seasons. Edgar Renteria hit a two-run homer in the first for the Reds, who won for only the second time in their last eight games.

Cordero passed Doug Jones with his 320th save for 14th on the career list and is one behind countryman Jose Mesa, the saves leader for pitchers from the Dominican Republic. He has five straight 30-save seasons.

“It means a lot, it shows me I’m doing my job,” Cordero said. “I’ve been doing my job a long time.”

Three straight Reds reached with two outs in the 10th against Fernando Salas (5-6) and pinch-runner Chris Valaika scored easily from second on Francisco’s single to center. The Cardinals fell to 6-12 in extra innings, and lead the majors in extra-inning losses.

“I think it’s meaningful,” La Russa said. “As good as our bullpen has been, at times it’s made mistakes. We’ve gotten beat on a lot of pitches that were good to hit.”

Cincinnati reliever Bill Bray (5-2) got pinch-hitter David Freese to fly out with a runner on second to end the ninth.

Arroyo pitched eight innings, matching his season best. He allowed only two runs despite giving up 10 hits, but is winless in his last seven starts against St. Louis.

“Yeah, he was great,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “He has a big ‘ol welt on his leg from that line drive from Furcal. He got some tough hitters out in some tough situations and we wanted to get him the win, but we got the win.”

Jay’s drive was the 37th allowed by Arroyo, extending his franchise record for a right-hander, but he didn’t allow a runner to reach scoring position his last four innings. He’s 1-5 in his last 12 starts since June 24.

Edwin Jackson struck out eight in seven innings in his best outing since joining the Cardinals at the trade deadline. He trailed 2-0 after the first two hitters but worked six straight scoreless innings after that and is 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA his last three starts.

Brandon Phillips opened the game with a single and Renteria followed with his fifth homer before Jackson retired the next three in order.

Renteria struck out with the bases loaded to end the second. Cincinnati also left two on in the sixth and eighth and another scoring opportunity was squandered in the fourth when catcher Gerald Laird reacted quickly on a pitch in the dirt, recovering it several feet away and throwing to Jackson to catch Francisco trying to score.

Jay hit his ninth homer with one out in the first and Descalso’s triple tied it in the fourth.

The first hit with runners in scoring position by either team was Francisco’s squibber off the end of the bat just out of the reach of Descalso at third and reliever Mark Rzepczynski to put runners on the corners with two outs in the eighth. Octavio Dotel got Ryan Hanigan to ground out to end the threat.

— Associated Press —

Juan Francisco hit a three-run homer and drove in five runs, and the Cincinnati Reds beat St. Louis 11-8 on Friday night to end the Cardinals’ four-game winning streak.

Yonder Alonso had a two-run homer and scored three runs for the Reds, who blew a 5-0 lead. Todd Frazier added a pinch-hit, solo home run for Cincinnati.

Jose Arredondo (4-4) allowed a solo homer in his one inning of work but got the win. Brandon Phillips, Edgar Renteria and Jay Bruce drove in the other runs for the Reds.

Reliever Marc Rzepczynski (0-1) started the seventh for the Cardinals in a 6-6 game and got Joey Votto to ground out to lead off the inning. But Bruce singled to left and Alonso followed with his fourth homer to make it 8-6.

After the Cardinals cut it to 8-7 on an RBI single by Rafael Furcal in the eighth, Francisco gave the Reds plenty of insurance with a two-out, three-run shot off reliever Kyle McClellan in the ninth.

Furcal and David Freese each had a solo home run and an RBI single for St. Louis, and Jon Jay was 2 for 3 with two runs scored. Matt Holliday added a solo homer in the ninth off Cincinnati reliever Francisco Cordero.

St. Louis starter Chris Carpenter had one bad inning, the second, when Cincinnati sent 10 men to the plate and scored five times. After Alonso reached on a double and Drew Stubbs on a fielder’s choice to start the inning, Francisco drove them both home with a double. Phillips, Renteria and Bruce all drove in runs with two-out hits to make it 5-0.

The Cardinals began pecking away at Cincinnati starter Johnny Cueto, getting two runs back in the bottom of the second on an RBI single by Freese and Yadier Molina’s fielder’s choice. St. Louis plated a single run in the third on Lance Berkman’s RBI single, and tied it in the fifth on Furcal’s homer and a double play by Holliday that scored Jon Jay to tie it 5-5.

Frazier hit a solo shot off Carpenter with two out in the sixth to give the Reds the lead again, but Freese tied it with a solo homer off Arredondo leading off the bottom half.

— Associated Press —

Albert Pujols showed everyone who the Cardinals’ real power hitter is.

A day after pitcher Jake Westbrook hit a grand slam, Pujols hit one of his own and added a solo shot to help the Cardinals complete a three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers with an 8-4 win Thursday.

“If Albert doesn’t have that kind of game, I don’t know where this game goes,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said after Pujols finished 4 for 4 with five RBIS and three runs scored.

That production helped the Cardinals win for the sixth time in seven games and move within 7½ games of the Brewers on the NL Central.

“Seven and a half is still plenty good,” Hart said. “I felt like we played extremely well. This is the first series in a while when we didn’t play as we should have. You’re going to get beat by good teams when you don’t play well.”

The Brewers dodged Pujols’ power until Thursday. He was batting .189 in 14 games. Milwaukee hadn’t been swept at home since the Dodgers did it Aug. 24-26, 2010.

“We just came here to try to win the series,” La Russa said. “Obviously, it wasn’t easy. These guys are playing pretty well in their ball park. Taking three games out of three is awesome. We just need to flip the page and be ready to play tomorrow with Cincinnati.”

Rafael Furcal led off the game with a home run for the second game in a row and Pujols also hit a first-inning homer before his third-inning slam.

Matt Holiday hit his 200th career home run in the fifth with a two-run shot.

“It was nice — 200 home runs is a pretty good mark,” Holliday said. “It’s nice to get it out of the way.”

Milwaukee scored all of its runs on homers by Prince Fielder, Jonathan Lucroy and Corey Hart.

Fielder became the first player in Brewers history with 30 home runs in five consecutive seasons with a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth.

Throughout the series, the Brewers never mounted any come-from-behind threats against the Cardinals’ relievers.

“They’re such a dangerous club to keep off the scoreboard,” La Russa said. “The fact that our bullpen did so many of them, that’s a credit to a lot of guys with good arms making a lot of good pitches and our catcher is a magician sometimes.”

Pujols crushed Yovani Gallardo’s 2-0 pitch in the first 462 feet to left, but his slam went the opposite way to give him the NL lead with 34 homers.

“I got a good pitch to hit up and just put a good swing (on it) and it went out of the park,” Pujols said.

It was the 42nd multihomer game of his career.

Pujols and Holliday helped chase Gallardo (15-9) in the fifth. Pujols hit a liner for a single and Holliday followed with an opposite-field two-run shot for an 8-3 lead.

Four of Furcal’s five home runs with the Cardinals since being acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 31 have come against the Brewers.

Brandon Dickson made his first major-league start for St. Louis after being recalled from Triple-A Memphis.

La Russa said that there were too many games left to think the Brewers will panic.

“I wouldn’t even begin to expect that they have doubt,” he said. “They know they’re a good club. The record they built, they built because they are a good club and they compete well.”

Hart’s two-run homer off Dickson made it 6-3. After a visit by bullpen coach Derek Lilliquist, Dickson struck out the side to end the threat.

Official scorer Tim O’Driscoll gave the win to Octavio Dotel (1-2) who took over for Dickson in the fourth when the Brewers put two on with one out. He promptly struck out Lucroy and Gallardo to end the threat.

Gallardo allowed eight runs on nine hits, struck out eight and walked one.

The Brewers and the Cardinals play their final three games of their season series this coming Monday at Busch Stadium.

“We’ve got to go on the road and start playing a little better,” Hart said. “We’ve been doing it all year, so I don’t see why we’re not going to do it.”

— Associated Press —

Jake Westbrook only hoped his drive would stay fair. Turns out, Westbrook’s big hit is keeping things interesting in the NL Central.

Westbrook hit his first major league homer — a grand slam — to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to an 8-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night.

“It’s pretty special,” Westbrook said. “To go back and say you hit a grand slam in the big leagues, it’s a lot of fun. … I’m still not that great of a hitter.”

Rafael Furcal and Albert Pujols added solo homers as the Cardinals won their fifth in six games to cut the first-place Brewers’ lead to 8½ games in the NL Central.

“Our team needs to generate a lot of wins,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. “If we win a lot of games, a couple of weeks from now, we can get excited.”

The Cardinals’ victory guaranteed Milwaukee will lose its first series at home since the Arizona Diamondbacks took two of three July 4-6 at Miller Park. The Brewers haven’t been swept at home this season.

“We still have to win games once they leave. We still have to play other teams. It’s not too dramatic as far as they sweep us,” Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder said. “It’s not good for us. (But) it’s not the end of the world.”

Furcal led off the game with a homer and Pujols followed two batters later with his NL-leading 32nd. Westbrook (11-7) tossed five innings, and his slam in the fourth gave St. Louis a 6-2 lead.

Of the last four pitchers to hit grand slams in the major leagues, three have been Cardinals.

Milwaukee has the best home record in the majors at 50-18, but the Brewers have been sloppy each of the last two games and failed in their second and final chance to set a new franchise record for wins in any month at 22.

“The hotness is still over there,” La Russa said. “They’re legit, their record, they’ve earned and they’ll be tough to catch.”

Brewers starter Randy Wolf (11-9) couldn’t escape trouble in the fourth with the game tied at 2 after hitting the first two batters of the inning.

Yadier Molina followed with a sharp fly ball that hit the right-field wall.

David Freese stopped at third and Lance Berkman couldn’t advance past second, leaving Molina momentarily hung up on the bases, but the Cardinals catcher scrambled back to first just ahead of Fielder’s tag to load the bases.

“I did the right thing throwing it to home,” second baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. said. “It just so happens you don’t expect a guy going back to first on a sure double.

“It’s a weird play and it just worked out in their favor. Prince was right where he was supposed to be. Everybody was where they were supposed to be. You don’t expect a guy hit a ball off the wall to have to go back to first,” he said.

After Ryan Theriot’s fielder’s choice cut down Freese at the plate, Westbrook hit a drive down the left-field line for his first career home run. Pinch-hitter Corey Patterson’s RBI double and Furcal’s run-scoring single off Marco Estrada in the sixth gave St. Louis an 8-3 lead.

“We’ve got to go out there and win ball games, that’s the attitude we’re taking,” Westbrook said. “It was another good win for us and we need to do what we can to get on a good streak and keep it going.”

Corey Hart homered to start the game for Milwaukee, but Ryan Braun fell halfway down the third-base line on what would have been an inside-the-park homer in the third.

With Nyjer Morgan on first, Braun appeared to have an inside-the-park home run when center fielder Allen Craig awkwardly dived at the wall and the ball caromed away.

Braun rounded third base but lost his balance down the line and fell flat. By the time he got back on his feet, Molina had the relay throw and began a rundown that ended when Freese tagged him out at third.

Braun received a standing ovation from the crowd of 38,073 and a few chuckles in the dugout for his RBI triple, but the play only tied the score at 2 instead of giving the Brewers the lead.

“It’s unfortunate,” Fielder said. “It was gravity.”

Westbrook followed with his big hit before Hairston’s single in the fourth cut St. Louis’ lead to 6-3, but the Brewers never got closer.

“We’ve established we’re going to tough out the season,” La Russa said. “This month, there were a couple of periods there it was discouraging because Milwaukee couldn’t lose and we were mugging games.”

— Associated Press —

Earlier this month, the Milwaukee Brewers roughed up St. Louis starter Edwin Jackson for 10 runs in seven innings.

What a difference 27 days makes.

Jackson pitched seven solid innings and singled home the go-ahead run to help the Cardinals beat the Brewers 2-1 on Tuesday night.

“That’s a great team,” Jackson said of Milwaukee. “They have a lot of guys who can put the ball out of the ballpark. The game plan today was just come in and be aggressive. If I got hurt, you know, get hurt being aggressive around the plate.”

The assertiveness paid off. Jackson was sharp for the sixth time in seven starts since being obtained in a July 27 trade, striking out three without walking a batter.

“Edwin Jackson was outstanding,” Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke said. “That was as good as I’ve seen him throw.”

Despite the win, the Cardinals still are 9½ games behind the Brewers in the NL Central and have 27 games remaining.

“You don’t see anybody celebrating,” St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said.

Jackson (4-2) scattered six hits and kept Milwaukee scoreless until Corey Hart and Nyjer Morgan hit consecutive doubles to open the sixth, pulling the Brewers within 2-1. Morgan was stranded, though, as the right-hander retired Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder and Casey McGehee in order.

“It was really impressive,” La Russa said.

Jackson’s outing was in stark contrast to the last time he faced Milwaukee, giving up 10 runs in seven innings in the Brewers 10-5 win over the Cardinals on Aug. 3.

Marc Rzepczynski walked Fielder to open the ninth, and Fernando Salas replaced him and walked McGehee. Salas, though, recorded the final three outs for his 23rd save in 28 chances.

“They scared the hell out of us every inning, just about,” La Russa said.

Milwaukee starter Shaun Marcum (11-5) lost his second consecutive start despite not allowing an earned run. The right-hander went seven innings, allowing only two unearned runs on four hits and three walks while striking out four.

“They pitched well against us and we didn’t do very much,” La Russa said. “But, we pitched well, too, and defended well.”

Defense was the difference for the Cardinals. Albert Pujols made three nice plays, charging a bunt and catching it on the fly in the first, making a running catch to snag a foul pop in the second and firing to third to get a force out for the first out in the ninth.

“To win a game like this, 2-1, you obviously have to play some good defense,” Pujols said. “That’s what we did today.”

The Cardinals scored a pair of unearned runs in the fifth. Skip Schumaker’s hard grounder went through Fielder’s legs at first base for an error to open the inning. Rafael Furcal then hit a grounder to second, but Jerry Hairston Jr. bobbled it for another error.

“That happens,” Marcum said. “That’s baseball. It has happened to every pitcher in this game. There is nothing you can do about it. I just kept going out there pitching and doing my job.”

Yadier Molina singled to load the bases and Jackson singled to right, scoring Schumaker to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead. Jon Jay followed with a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Furcal for a 2-0 Cardinals lead.

This three-game series appeared to be key in the pennant stretch when St. Louis beat Milwaukee on Aug. 11 to pull within four games of first place, but the Brewers went 14-3 and the Cardinals went 7-9 in between the two series.

Morgan had three hits — two singles and a double — and a stolen base for Milwaukee.

The Cardinals loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth, but Marco Estrada got Ryan Theriot to ground out to end the inning.

— Associated Press —