Adam Wainwright earned his NL-leading 15th win with his fifth complete game and had a key sacrifice fly to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 3-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Friday night.

Matt Holliday’s 432-foot home run off Kris Medlen (10-12) snapped a sixth-inning tie for St. Louis, which took the first two games of a four-game set against the NL East leaders.

Having already thrown 101 pitches, Wainwright was allowed to bat with the one out and the bases loaded in the seventh inning and hit a long sacrifice fly off Scott Downs for his third RBI of the season to make it 3-1. He then retired the side in order in the eighth.

Medlen singled to lead off the sixth and scored on Freddie Freeman’s second hit of the game and retired 12 in a row at one point. But he allowed Holliday’s 17th homer on a liner deep into the left field stands. He’s lost his last two times out, including a relief appearance in a 15-inning game.

The Cardinals lost three in a row at Atlanta to start a seven-game losing streak in late July that knocked them out of the Central lead and entered the night a game behind Pittsburgh. Wainwright (15-7) took one of the losses in that series, but the Brunswick, Ga., native is 7-2 against the Braves.

Wainwright allowed a run on six hits with no walks and nine strikeouts, passing injured teammate Chris Carpenter for fourth on the franchise career list, and he has 16 career complete games. He’s worked seven or more innings seven straight starts and retired 10 in a row at one point.

He even got an assist from his manager. Mike Matheny, a former four-time Gold Glove catcher, took the warmup tosses from Wainwright before the ninth.

Yadier Molina had three hits with a pair of doubles to raise his NL-leading average to .337, five points ahead of the Braves’ Chris Johnson, who had a pair of singles.

Molina doubled and Jon Jay singled to open the seventh and chase Medlen. Downs got a brief reprieve earlier in the inning when a wild pitch ricocheted back to catcher Brian McCann.

The Braves’ Justin Upton was ejected in the sixth for arguing with home plate umpire Paul Nauert after a groundout, perhaps about a called third strike the previous at-bat.

— Associated Press —

Joe Kelly pitched six effective innings, Matt Holliday broke out of a slump with two doubles and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves 6-2 on Thursday night.

David Freese drove in two runs as St. Louis won for the fifth time in six games.

The NL East-leading Braves played without Jason Heyward, who is out with a broken right jaw after he was beaned during Wednesday’s 4-1 win at the New York Mets. The outfielder had surgery on Thursday in Atlanta and could miss the rest of the regular season.

Justin Upton hit his 24th homer, but the Braves lost for the second time in three games at the start of a six-game trip. Atlanta had won eight of its last nine regular-season games against St. Louis.

Kelly (5-3) allowed two runs and seven hits while improving to 5-0 with a 1.79 ERA in his last seven starts. St. Louis improved to 7-1 in Kelly’s eight starts since he rejoined the rotation on July 6.

Holliday went 2 for 3 and drove in a run, matching the amount of hits he had during a 2-for-24 slide over his previous six games. He doubled and scored in the fourth, then capped St. Louis’ three-run fourth with an RBI double that made it 4-2.

Freese had a run-scoring groundout in the fourth and an RBI single in the seventh.

Paul Maholm (9-10) came off the disabled list and allowed five runs, four earned, and five hits in 5 1-3 innings for Atlanta. It was the first game for the left-hander since he left a July 20 start at the Chicago White Sox with a bruised left wrist.

Maholm helped himself with a leadoff single in the fifth. Upton then hit a one-out drive to center for his eighth homer this month, giving Atlanta a 2-1 lead.

St. Louis went back in front in the bottom half on consecutive run-scoring doubles by Matt Carpenter, Carlos Beltran and Holliday. Pete Kozma sparked the big inning with a one-out walk.

— Associated Press —

Jake Westbrook didn’t last long enough to earn the victory on Wednesday, but the light-hitting St. Louis pitcher used his bat to spark a six-run, second-inning outburst that led to a Cardinals win over the Milwaukee win.

The Cardinals jumped out to a seven-run lead and then held on for an 8-6 victory.

Westbrook, who entered the game hitting only .167 with two RBIs this season, smacked a bases-loaded double into the left-center field gap that scored two runs, starting an onslaught that propelled the Cardinals a 7-0 lead.

”I’m happy to be able to contribute in that sense, especially with the bases loaded and nobody out and to put a good swing on the ball,” Westbrook said.

Westbrook didn’t fare as well on the mound, however. He fell one out short of earning this eighth win of the year, giving up four earned runs and nine hits in 4 2-3 innings. He walked one and struck out one during a 75-pitch outing.

In his previous start on Aug. 16, when he threw a career-high 124 pitches, Westbrook gave up six earned runs in 6 2-3 innings.

”I still felt like I pitched a lot better than I have been in terms of throwing strikes and getting ahead of guys,” Westbrook said. ”I actually made some good pitches that they put some good swings on. Getting two quick outs in the fifth and not being able to finish it off is pretty frustrating for me.

”The bullpen came in and picked me up and finished it off, and the offense was great.”

Carlos Beltran and Allen Craig hit towering home runs in the game-changing second inning. Matt Holliday also homered later in the game and Shane Robinson had three hits for the Cardinals, who remain close behind the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NL Central race.

”It was a big win,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. ”Those are the ones you’ve got to find a way to win, when you put that kind of offensive production up early.”

After taking a one-run lead in the first inning on a double by Craig, the Cardinals torched Brewers starter Tom Gorzelanny (3-5) in the second.

”You make mistakes and you pay for them, especially against good-hitting teams,” Gorzelanny said. ”I left balls over the middle, (and made) bad pitch selection.”

Following Matt Carpenter’s sacrifice fly, Beltran launched a two-run shot that caromed off the center-field scoreboard. With two out, Craig hit a solo homer to right-center.

”We are happy that we were able to win the series,” Beltran said. ”That is basically what is important for us right now.”

The Brewers cut into the lead in the third on a three-run homer by Aramis Ramirez, and then added two runs in the fifth.

Juan Francisco broke out of an 0-for-15 slump, during which he struck out 10 times, with a run-scoring single. Sean Halton drove in another run with a hit, cutting the deficit to 7-5 and chasing Westbrook.

”(Westbrook) started out pretty good, but for whatever reason they were finding the good part of the bat and finding holes,” Matheny said.

Kevin Siegrist struck out pinch-hitter Jeff Bianchi with the bases loaded to end the fifth inning. Siegrist (2-1) recorded two outs to notch the victory. Four Cardinals relievers held the Brewers to one run over the final 5 1-3 innings to preserve the win.

Holliday’s solo home run in the ninth extended the lead to 8-5.

Edward Mujica earned his 33rd save in 35 attempts despite giving up a long solo home run to Logan Schafer with one out in the ninth.

Gorzelanny surrendered seven runs and 10 hits in 3 2-3 innings. He walked one and struck out five.

”He didn’t command the ball that well early and then they also hit some pretty good pitches. We know they are a good hitting club, and when you don’t hit your spots, they are going to put a good swing on it,” Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke said.

Khris Davis had a career-best three hits for Milwaukee.

”He keeps showing he can hang in there. He works the count well, which I really like,” Roenicke said. ”He’s an aggressive swinger, but he’s not a hacker. He doesn’t just go up there and swing at everything. He swings at the pitch he wants to swing at.”

— Associated Press —

Kyle Lohse finally beat the St. Louis Cardinals, and the win didn’t come that easily.

Lohse beat the Cardinals in his fourth try this season and Sean Halton knocked in a career-high three runs to help the Milwaukee Brewers beat St. Louis 6-3 Tuesday night.

”They made me work for it,” he said after improving to 3-5 in nine outings overall against his former team. ”I felt like I threw a lot of really good pitches and they kept battling them off, fouling them off, taking close ones.”

Lohse had his best major league season in 2012 when he went 16-3 with a 2.88 ERA in 33 starts with St. Louis. The Cardinals did not try to re-sign him and he became a free agent.

Lohse said the win was just like any other even if it snapped a five-game losing streak against the Cardinals.

”I don’t put any more emphasis on any one game over the other,” he said. ”I went out there and tried to do what I’d been doing.”

Lohse left after six innings with the Brewers leading 6-3. He earned his team-leading 17th quality start, including six in his last seven. He struck out four, walked two and allowed six hits and three runs, two coming on Yadier Molina’s two-run homer in the fourth. Molina doubled and scored in the second on Matt Adams’ single.

”Yadi hit a pretty pitch for a homer, but that’s what he does,” Lohse said.

John Axford and Brandon Kintzler each pitched a scoreless inning, and Jim Henderson pitched the ninth for his 19th save in 22 chances.

The Cardinals were ahead 3-0 when the Brewers fought back with a five-run fourth that put Lohse back in line for the victory.

”The team did a great job battling back after I put us in a hole,” he said. ”Other than that, doesn’t mean any more beating them.”

Lance Lynn (13-7) got roughed up in the fourth, highlighted by Halton’s two-run single with the bases loaded.

Milwaukee’s first six batters in the frame reached, loading the bases twice with no outs. Scooter Gennett drove in the first run with a single. After Aramis Ramirez singled and Khris Davis reached on Lynn’s fielding error, Halton drove them in with a line drive to center that doubled his season RBI total. Logan Schafer followed with an RBI single and Norichika Aoki tacked on the last run with a sacrifice fly.

”We stacked together a bunch of hits (Monday), and they did the exact same thing,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. ”It is just a matter of stopping it when it gets going. We did the same thing yesterday. We found holes and created a rally.”

Kolten Wong, who had his first two major league hits Monday night, continued getting on base for St. Louis. He went 3 for 5 with two singles and a double. The team’s No. 1. pick in the 2011 draft joined the Cardinals from Triple-A Memphis Friday night in Chicago.

”It was just one of those innings where things are dropping, not going our way,” he said. ”Unfortunately, they scored a majority of their runs in that inning.”

Halton set a career mark in the fifth with his third RBI of the game. Davis singled, stole second and scored on Halton’s grounder into center.

Carlos Beltran singled and scored on Molina’s 10th home run of the season.

Adams beat the Brewers’ defensive shift in the second inning and knocked in Molina with the Cardinals’ first run. Adams blooped a single over the head of shortstop Jean Segura, positioned on the right side of second base. Molina was on with a double over the head of center fielder Schafer. The ball flicked off Schafer’s glove and rolled to the wall.

The Brewers have almost no chance at the playoffs and are resigned to playing the role of spoiler.

”I know we have a stretch here where we’re playing a lot of teams that are contending for playoff spots,” Lohse said. ”I don’t care who it is. Feels good to kind of hurt teams’ chances.”

— Associated Press —