CINCINNATI (AP) — Everything has fallen into place, allowing the St. Louis Cardinals to pull away.

Matt Carpenter broke a scoreless tie with his two-run single in the seventh inning, Matt Adams added a three-run homer, and the Cardinals extended their surge in the NL Central by beating the Cincinnati Reds 5-0 on Monday night.

St. Louis has won nine of 10, going from two games out to a season-high 4 1/2 games up in the division. The Cardinals are 10-3 against the Reds this season and 40-24 against the NL Central overall.

“Everything is clicking right now,” Adams said. “Our starting pitching is just unbelievable right now, and our offense is doing what it’s capable of doing.”

Shelby Miller (9-9) gave up three hits while pitching into the eighth in his first victory in three starts against Cincinnati this season. Two relievers finished the three-hitter.

Miller faced the minimum 12 batters over the first four innings — Brandon Phillips singled but was taken out in a double play. Devin Mesoraco led off the fifth with a double but was stranded at second, the only Red to reach scoring position.

The Cardinals didn’t walk a batter and turned a pair of double plays. As a result, their pitchers faced only 28 batters, one over the minimum.

Miller is putting together his best stretch of the season by turning to his curveball, a pitch he used less frequently early in the season. He allowed only three hits in seven innings of a 1-0 win over the Pirates his last time out.

“It’s just building confidence in that pitch,” Miller said. “I feel it’s the second-best pitch I have.

“The biggest thing is just using it. The more you use it, the more you get a feel for it and you can throw it where you want to.”

Carpenter’s single off Manny Parra (0-3) left Cincinnati’s bullpen 0-14 since the All-Star break, part of Cincinnati’s 16-33 slide over that time. The Reds have dropped eight of their last 10 and fallen 10 games under .500 for the first time since 2009.

The Reds had two pitchers leave the game because of injury.

Reds starter Dylan Axelrod threw only seven pitches before pulling his right oblique. Left-hander David Holmberg relieved and went a career-high 5 2/3 innings, allowing four hits while throwing 81 pitches.

Right-hander Pedro Villarreal took a grounder off his forearm in the ninth and left the game. Ondrusek replaced him and gave up Adams’ three-run homer on his second pitch.

“That was a beautiful swing by Matt Adams,” manager Mike Matheny said. “That was one of the loudest ones I’ve ever heard.”

The Reds went through seven pitchers overall, including four in the decisive seventh. Parra gave up Randal Grichuk’s pinch-hit double and Kolten Wong’s infield single. After Miller’s sacrifice, Carpenter singled to right for a 2-0 lead.

SLUMP BUSTER

Slumping Cardinals OF Matt Holliday got Sunday off. He was back in the lineup on Monday and singled to end the slide at 0 for 10. He later added another single.

STATS

Carpenter has driven in a pair of runs in each of the last two games. He has three straight multihit games. … Wong extended his hitting streak to five games. … The Reds are 10 games below .500 for the first time since Sept. 23, 2009. They’re a season-high 13 games out of first place. … Holmberg’s outing was the longest by a Reds reliever since Carlos Fisher threw 5 2/3 innings during a 19-inning game on May 25, 2011, at Philadelphia.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: INF Greg Garcia, OF Tommy Pham and RHP Sam Tuivailala were promoted from Triple-A Memphis. C Audry Perez and OF Rafael Ortega were designated for assignment to create room on the 40-man roster.

Reds: SS Zack Cozart was in the lineup for the third straight game after missing time because of a sore right wrist. He is in an 0-for-16 slump.

UP NEXT:

Cardinals: Michael Wacha (5-5) makes his third start of the season against Cincinnati. The Cardinals are 5-2 at Great American Ball Park this season and have won six straight against Cincinnati overall.

Reds: Mike Leake (10-11) is coming off his worst start of the season. He gave up a season-high seven runs and three homers in only four innings of a 9-7 loss at Baltimore on Thursday.

— Associated Press —

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Brewers had finally gotten to Adam Wainwright in the ninth when St. Louis manager Mike Matheny came to the mound to check if his ace right-hander was tiring.

Matheny didn’t expect an honest answer. Wainwright stayed in the game anyway.

Wainwright got Gerardo Parra to bounce into a double play for his fourth complete game of the season, and the Cardinals beat sliding Milwaukee 9-1 on Sunday.

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“I told him he had a short leash. I’m still waiting for that day when I go out there and he’s actually honest if he doesn’t feel good,” Matheny said.

The Cardinals won three of four at Miller Park and lead the NL Central by 4½ games over Pittsburgh, which beat Chicago 10-4 at Wrigley Field on Sunday.

“Now’s the time we’ve got to keep the throttle down,” Matheny said. “This game can reach up and grab you.”

The Brewers are well aware of how quickly fortunes can change. Losers of 11 of 12, their freefall continued after spending nearly five months atop the NL Central before dropping into second on Sept. 1.

They fell into third after Sunday’s loss, leapfrogged by Pittsburgh. The Pirates also moved a half-game ahead of Milwaukee for the second NL wild card.

“There’s no excuse … it’s tough,” outfielder Carlos Gomez said. “We know we’re not playing like a team. Just put it in the past and come tomorrow and win the … game.”

St. Louis grabbed a 4-0 lead with four in the fourth against rookie Jimmy Nelson (2-7). Peter Bourjos had the big blow, a triple to left-center that drove in Yadier Molina and Oscar Taveras.

It was more than enough support for Wainwright (17-9), who is tied for the major league lead in victories. The right-hander allowed seven hits in his 20th career complete game.

Wainwright had allowed at least three runs in each of his previous three starts, failing to get out of the sixth each time.

But feast-or-famine Milwaukee managed just an RBI single by Gomez.

“Today was obviously a big win for our team, but you know just a realization of all the little steps I’ve been taking over the last few weeks — I knew it was a matter of time,” Wainwright said.

And on cue, the Cardinals are in the middle of another September surge.

They held the Brewers scoreless until Gomez’s pinch-hit single in the ninth drove home Scooter Gennett from second. It was Gomez’s first at-bat in a week after being sidelined with a left wrist injury.

BAD GLOVES

The Brewers helped out Wainwright by grounding into three double plays and committing three errors.

“We do this once in a while, and I sure don’t like to see it. They don’t like it. They work hard, they give a good effort and then we play this sloppy,” manager Ron Roenicke said.

BIG BOURJOS

Milwaukee’s first miscue came at the start of St. Louis’ four-run fourth, when Nelson’s pickoff attempt of Jon Jay squirted past Jonathan Lucroy at first. Jay then scored on Matt Adams’ sacrifice fly.

Later, Bourjos’ liner landed in the gap in left-center and bounced to the wall. The speedy outfielder had more than enough time to sail into third after driving home two runs for a 4-0 lead.

“I don’t think we’ve always been clicking on the right cylinders,” Bourjos said. “Everybody’s clicking right now.”

MILESTONE

Cardinals SS Jhonny Peralta got the 1,500th career hit with a fourth-inning single. He added his 20th homer of the year with a two-run shot in the ninth.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: LF Matt Holliday got a day off. Holliday has gone hitless in four of his last five games, with the exception being a three-hit outing on Thursday night in Milwaukee.

Brewers: Gomez had been used as a pinch runner and defensive replacement in recent days before his pinch-hitting appearance Sunday. Roenicke said Gomez was due to see the team doctor Sunday to determine if his star outfielder was ready to return to the starting lineup Monday.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: Shelby Miller (8-9) gets the ball for the start of a four-game series Monday against Cincinnati. Matheny said he expected another wave of minor-league reinforcements to join the team then.

Brewers: Yovani Gallardo (8-8) opens a four-game series at home against Miami. He is 5-0 against the Marlins in seven career starts.

— Associated Press —

MILWAUKEE — Matt Adams and Oscar Taveras homered, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-3 on Saturday night to open a four-game lead in the NL Central.

Lance Lynn pitched six effective innings as St. Louis won for the seventh time in its last eight games. Trevor Rosenthal got three outs for his 43rd save in 48 chances.

The Brewers have lost 10 of 11. Ryan Braun had an RBI single in the first, and Lyle Overbay doubled home a run in the sixth.

Milwaukee right-hander Kyle Lohse (12-9) lasted just four innings. He allowed five runs and four hits with two walks.

— Associated Press —

MILWAUKEE (AP) — In less than a month, Mike Fiers has jumped from minor league starter to playoff-race stopper.

Scooter Gennett drove in three runs and Fiers pitched into the seventh inning to lead Milwaukee past St. Louis 6-2 Friday night, snapping the Brewers’ nine-game losing streak and trimming the Cardinals’ lead in the NL Central to three games.

Fiers (5-2) gave up two runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings, improving to 5-1 in six starts since being called up from Triple-A Nashville on Aug. 9 and giving him half of the Brewers’ 10 wins in 28 games since then. He struck out five and walked one.

“It’s big. We needed a win here pretty soon,” said Fiers, who also helped himself with a pair of key sacrifice bunts. “I just wanted to give them a quality start, keep the runs as low as possible and give our team a chance to win. It’s a big relief, but we have more work to do tomorrow.

Jonathan Broxton, acquired Aug. 31 from Cincinnati, pitched a perfect eighth and Francisco Rodriguez got the last three outs after allowing consecutive singles to start the ninth.

Milwaukee moved one game ahead of Atlanta for the NL’s second wild-card spot. The Braves lost 11-3 at Miami.

Cardinals starter John Lackey (2-2) gave up all six runs and nine hits in six innings as St. Louis snapped a six-game winning streak.

“Kind of a weird one tonight,” Lackey said. “Felt like I threw a lot better than the line score. I felt like I had good stuff. They got a couple big hits and then kind of had a little bad luck to start a couple of those innings. It happens.”

The Brewers took a 2-0 lead in the third on Gennett’s two-run single. Milwaukee doubled the lead in the fifth on Gennett’s RBI double and Jonathan Lucroy’s run-scoring single.

“We haven’t really had that early lead in a while,” Gennett said. “Especially against a team like this, you want to get ahead early. It was just nice to keep it and keep adding to it.”

The early runs marked the Brewers first two-run lead since Aug. 27 at San Diego when they blew a 2-0 lead in the ninth en route to a 3-2 loss in 10 innings. During the nine-game losing streak, Milwaukee scored two runs or fewer in eight of them.

Jhonny Peralta snapped an 0-for-10 streak and cut the lead to 4-1 in the sixth with his 19th home run, but Khris Davis answered in the bottom of the inning with his team-best 22nd homer to make it 6-1.

“You look at the two run homer, didn’t see the pitch again but it looked like it caught a lot of the plate,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “But, if that doesn’t happen we are in a 4-2 game and it would be a typical John Lackey start. The home run really kind of put it out of reach for him.”

St. Louis added a run in the seventh on a double by Peter Bourjos and a two-out pinch-hit infield single by Oscar Tavares that deflected off the glove of first baseman Lyle Overbay.

Fiers has gone at least six innings in each of his six starts, returning to the form he showed in the first half of 2012 with Milwaukee. That season, he was 8-6 with a 2.89 ERA in his first 16 starts, but 1-4 with a 7.09 ERA in his final six starts.

His struggles continued into 2013 where he was 1-4 with a 7.25 ERA in 11 games with the Brewers and was sent down twice. Fiers’ season ended in mid-June at Triple-A when he suffered a broken right forearm when he was hit by a line drive.

Now, he is keeping the Brewers playoff hopes alive.

“All those losses in a row, we didn’t play well, but I think we’ve turned it around and are playing some good baseball right now,” Fiers said. “We’re hitting the ball, we’re pitching. It’s only a matter of time before it turns around for us.”

REALLY SMALL BALL

Brewers shortstop Jean Segura had three hits — all infield singles.

UPON FURTHER REVIEW

Scooter Gennett stole second with one out in the third, but Cardinals manager Mike Matheny challenged the call, which was overturned after a review that lasted an estimated 52 seconds.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Brewers: CF Carlos Gomez, expected to miss a week a more with a sprained left wrist, is progressing faster than anticipated. Gomez has not started the last five games since injuring his wrist on a swing against San Francisco on Sunday. He took light batting practice in the cage before Friday’s game, although he did not swing all-out. Gomez, who pinch ran Thursday, went into center field in the ninth inning on Friday as a defensive replacement.

Gennett, who missed several games in August with a right quad muscle injury, left the game in the seventh inning with what Roenicke called a little tightness. “It’s good. I haven’t been on base in a while, so I think a lot of was just a little tired,” Gennett said. “Five runs at the time for a lead, it was just keep it safe.”

PROUD PAPA RETURNS

Brewers right fielder Ryan Braun returned from paternity leave after missing two games for the birth of his daughter, Celine Elysse. Braun went 1 for 4 with a single in the seventh inning.

ON DECK

Cardinals: Lance Lynn (14-8, 2.85 ERA) is 3-1 with a 1.85 ERA in six games at Miller Park, including five starts. With a win, he will join Max Scherzer as the only two pitchers with 15 victories in each of the last three seasons.

Brewers: Kyle Lohse (12-8, 3.68 ERA) gave up seven runs on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings in his last start, a 15-5 loss to San Francisco. In two starts this season against St. Louis, Lohse is 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA, allowing 10 earned runs in 10 innings.

— Associated Press —

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Inning after inning, the St. Louis bullpen got into tough jams in a one-run game.

Marco Gonzales and five fellow relievers staved off every advance, getting a huge boost from a game-saving catch in center field by Peter Bourjos.

The bullpen combined for six innings of one-run ball and the Cardinals held off the slumping Milwaukee Brewers 3-2 Thursday night for their sixth straight win.

“We had guys picking each other up all night,” manager Mike Matheny said.

The Cardinals moved to a season-high 14 games above .500 and extended their lead to four games in the NL Central over the Brewers, who lost their ninth straight

St. Louis used the bullpen early after Michael Wacha was limited to three innings in his first start off the disabled list. Gonzales (2-2) went 2 1/3 innings for the win.

“The bullpen came in there and shut the door for those last six innings,” Wacha said. “That was fun to watch.”

The Brewers stranded potential tying runs in scoring position from the sixth through the ninth, the latest frustrating loss for a team that was in first place just 10 days earlier.

Manager Ron Roenicke at least he liked the fight he saw in his club.

“We hit a lot of balls hard. Either they made a really good play on it or we hit it right at `em,” Roenicke said.

St. Louis never trailed after Yadier Molina’s two-run single in the first off Wily Peralta (15-10). Still, the Brewers had numerous chances to snap out of their two-week funk.

Seth Maness got the Cardinals out of the sixth by inducing Logan Schafer to fly out in foul territory with a runner on third. Carlos Martinez got third-place hitter Jonathan Lucroy to pop out to end the seventh with another runner on third.

In the eighth, the Brewers put runners on first and second with nobody out against Pat Neshek. The side-arming right-hander bounced back by getting Martin Maldonado to pop up a bunt attempt before Schafer hit a hard-hit fly that was tracked down by Bourjos at the center-field wall for the second out.

“I thought that ball was gone. I did. I thought it was out. Just an incredible catch. He’s not just fast — he’s got good instincts and great jumps,” Matheny said.

Jean Segura sent a flare to left fielder Matt Holliday, ending the threat in the eighth.

NEARLY THERE

Schafer thought the ball would get over Bourjos’ head. He was surprised when Bourjos tracked it down, though Schafer knows Bourjos is an excellent fielder.

The eighth inning exemplified the recent difficult stretch for the Brewers.

“We were in it the whole time,” Schafer said. “Again, we’re just waiting for that big hit.”

FINISHING IT OFF

The Cardinals used six relievers in all, with closer Trevor Rosenthal issuing two walks to put runners on first and second with two outs in the ninth. Rosenthal got pinch-hitter Jason Rogers to fly out to the edge of the warning track in right for his 42nd save.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: Wacha threw 50 pitches and struck out three. He allowed three hits, including Lucroy’s RBI single in the first. The right-hander had been on the disabled list since June 18 with a right shoulder injury.

Brewers: Carlos Gomez pinch ran but remained out of the starting lineup with a left wrist injury. Roenicke said his leadoff hitter was feeling good, and the team doctor would re-evaluate Gomez in the hope that he might be able to return soon. Gomez has been sidelined since Monday.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: John Lackey (2-1) gets the start Friday, when he hopes for a repeat performance of his first start with the Cardinals after being traded from Boston. He gave up two runs in seven innings in a 3-2 victory.

Brewers: Mike Fiers (4-2) is 1-0 with a 0.75 ERA in two career starts against the Cardinals, both coming in 2012.

BABY BRAUN

Ryan Braun missed a second straight game following the birth of his daughter Wednesday night. The right fielder appears likely to return for Friday’s game.

“I’d like (him) and Gomey in the lineup,” Roenicke said. “But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. This is obviously the most important thing in his life.”

— Associated Press —