Once again, Francisco Rodriguez flirted with trouble in the ninth inning.

For the second game in a row, the Milwaukee Brewers’ new closer managed to pitch out of a jam to nail down a save.

Given a two-run lead to start the ninth, Rodriguez loaded the bases and walked in a run before getting Lance Berkman to fly out and preserve a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday.

Rodriguez also had a shaky outing in Tuesday night’s win, but he’s still 2 for 2 since taking over for deposed closer John Axford.

”Just keep fighting, keep fighting,” Rodriguez said. ”I’m not going to give in, and I’m going to fight all the way until the end. That’s for sure.”

Brewers manager Ron Roenicke noted that Rodriguez may have been fatigued from his recent heavy workload, but also acknowledged that getting into – then out of – trouble is just part of his style.

”I’ve seen it so many years, and he just always seems to make the big pitches when he has to,” Roenicke said. ”And he continues to do it. Certainly, I’d rather we have clean innings. But I always feel confident that Frankie’s going to get out of it.”

Axford (3-6) claimed the win.

”He was sharp, his command was good,” Rodriguez said. ”He’s going to fight his way back.”

The Brewers took two out of three in the series with the Cardinals, who have lost five of six.

”Bottom line is, we’re not content in here with just fighting back,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. ”We’re content to do our jobs, which is to win games.”

Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright (7-10) got off to a rough start and didn’t get much help from his infielders, who committed three errors in the Brewers’ four-run first inning – including a pair by shortstop Rafael Furcal.

”You can’t really control what goes on behind you or anything else,” Wainwright said. ”You just have to make your next pitch and trust your defense.”

Brewers starter Tyler Thornburg went 4 2-3 innings, giving up two runs on a pair of solo homers. Thornburg was making his second career start after the Brewers decided to push Zack Greinke’s scheduled turn back to next week.

Thornburg had his big league debut against Toronto on June 19, a no-decision, and has made a relief appearance for the Brewers. Coming into Wednesday, he had given up five home runs in 7 1-3 innings.

Ryan Braun was not in the starting lineup for the Brewers after aggravating a nagging groin injury Tuesday night. He is expected to return for a weekend series at Cincinnati after an off day Thursday.

Norichika Aoki led off the game and reached on an error by Furcal, who charged a grounder but dropped it as he tried to get the ball out of his glove and make a throw. Nyjer Morgan then singled and Wainwright hit Aramis Ramirez on the left elbow with a 91-mph breaking ball. Ramirez stayed in the game, and Corey Hart hit a two-run single.

Wainwright then got two quick outs and appeared to be out of the inning when Carlos Gomez hit a grounder to Furcal – but Furcal’s throw to first was offline for his second error of the inning, allowing Ramirez to score. Berkman also was charged with an error on the play when he fell and lost the ball, allowing Hart to score and give the Brewers a 4-0 lead.

Wainwright recovered to go seven innings, giving up four runs – only one of which was earned – and four hits with nine strikeouts and no walks.

Home runs bit Thornburg again, as solo shots by David Freese in the second and Allen Craig in the third cut the lead to 4-2.

”There’s a difference when you’re behind in the count in the minor leagues and when you’re behind the count here,” Roenicke said. ”These guys don’t miss a good fastball. And I’m sure when he was at Double-A, Triple-A, he could throw the ball by guys.”

Thornburg was taken out of the game with two outs and a runner on first in the fifth, making way for Axford.

Axford lost the closer’s job to Rodriguez on Tuesday, in hopes that having Axford pitch in lower-pressure situations might help him sort out his struggles. Axford struck out Berkman to end the inning then gave up one hit in a scoreless sixth.

Axford praised Rodriguez’s performance.

”It looks like he’s bringing that mojo that we need back – get ourselves into trouble and get ourselves out of it,” Axford said. ”That’s what I had all last year, and hopefully he’s bringing that back.”

Although Rodriguez has taken over as closer, Roenicke said before the game that Axford ideally would be able to reclaim the job by the end of the season. For now, Axford is getting used to his new role and clearly hasn’t lost his sense of humor, noting that he wasn’t used to watching the sixth-inning ”racing sausage” mascot race from the dugout.

”They actually go a lot faster than you think,” Axford said.

— Associated Press —

Just when it looked as if the Milwaukee Brewers’ new closer was going to deliver an all-too-familiar result, Francisco Rodriguez managed to wiggle out of trouble — and finally help the bullpen deliver a win for Randy Wolf.

Although it wasn’t pretty, Rodriguez picked up a save just hours after he was named the team’s new closer and Wolf won his first game since April 30 as the Brewers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 on Tuesday.

“It was nice,” Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. “It was nice for Randy, too. He pitched a great game, comes out again with people on base and you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The Cardinals’ Matt Holliday left the game after getting hit in the leg with a pitch in the first inning and Brewers slugger Ryan Braun was removed with a right adductor strain in the seventh. Braun said the injury, something he has been dealing with off and on all season, wasn’t serious. He hoped to play in Wednesday’s series finale, a day game.

“Hopefully,” Braun said. “We’ll see how it feels tomorrow.”

Rickie Weeks hit a mammoth home run to give the Brewers the lead in the fourth.

Wolf (3-6) went 6 2/3 innings, giving up two runs and eight hits with a walk and six strikeouts to end his winless streak.

“It’s been a very, I think, tumultuous year to say the least,” Wolf said. “I’ve had my own personal demons to deal with, just my own frustrations. It’s been tough emotionally more than anything.”

Cardinals starter Joe Kelly (1-2) took the loss. St. Louis’ Lance Berkman was ejected for arguing a call.

With John Axford continuing to struggle and blowing another save Monday night, Brewers manager Ron Roenicke gave the closer’s job to Rodriguez before the game.

“Definitely, I didn’t want to get the job in this way,” Rodriguez said.

It wasn’t easy for Rodriguez, who gave up a leadoff double to David Freese, then a single to Yadier Molina to put runners on first and third with no outs.

Rodriguez then got Matt Carpenter to ground out, holding the runner at third, and struck out pinch hitter Skip Schumaker. With runners on second and third, Rodriguez got pinch-hitter Daniel Descalso to pop up and end the game.

Wolf apparently fought off the temptation to cover his eyes.

“I didn’t quite watch them through my fingers,” Wolf said of the final innings.

Wolf hasn’t had a victory since April 30 at San Diego, but the Brewers’ bullpen shares some of the blame for his winless streak. Coming into Tuesday’s game, Wolf was 0-4 with a 5.45 ERA during his last 12 starts. During that stretch, he left seven games with the lead, only to have the bullpen blow it.

Wolf said he got congratulations from several relievers.

“I said, ‘There it is, the elusive third win,'” Wolf said. “You usually say that in May, maybe.”

Kelly went six innings, giving up three runs — two earned — with six hits, a walk and four strikeouts.

Holliday took an 89 mph fastball from Wolf off his left leg in the first inning. Holliday remained in the game, but Cardinals manager Mike Matheny took him out in the bottom of the second. Holliday’s injury was described as a left thigh contusion.

The Brewers took a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI single by Corey Hart, but the Cardinals came back with two runs in the third.

Aramis Ramirez’s RBI single tied the game at 2 in the bottom of the third. Then, Weeks’ ninth homer of the season caromed high off the facade in center field, giving the Brewers a 3-2 lead in the fourth.

Wolf then allowed back-to-back singles to start the seventh. After a lengthy meeting with Roenicke at the mound, Wolf stayed in the game, and Tyler Greene’s sacrifice bunt advanced runners to second and third with one out.

Berkman pinch hit and Wolf ran the count to 3-2 before Berkman was called out on a checked swing. Berkman complained about the call and was thrown out of the game by plate umpire Brian Gorman.

Berkman said afterward that he was mostly upset that Gorman didn’t appeal the call.

“My biggest beef was you can’t make that call (from home plate),” Berkman said. “They think they can, but he was having a hard time getting the strike zone right, much less seeing if anybody swung a bat or not. So my beef was, just appeal. I mean, we’ve got a guy standing down there. It’s not tough to ask, you don’t have to make that call.”

With two outs, Roenicke pulled Wolf for reliever Jose Veras, who got Furcal to pop out to the catcher.

— Associated Press —

Allen Craig hit a bloop RBI single off Brewers closer John Axford to take the lead, and the St. Louis Cardinals rallied to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 3-2 on Monday night.

Milwaukee was leading 2-0 going into the ninth but Axford struggled with his control right away, eventually loading the bases with two outs and giving up a game-tying, two-run single to Matt Holliday.

Axford (2-6) then was lifted after giving up the single to Craig, which dropped softly into shallow left field. Axford left the game to a steady stream of boos from the crowd.

Axford’s sloppy inning wasted another strong performance by Brewers starter Mike Fiers, who pitched seven scoreless innings.

Jason Motte (4-3) claimed the win.

St. Louis had lost three straight coming into Monday’s game after getting swept by Cincinnati.

Corey Hart hit a solo home run for the Brewers, his 17th of the season. Ryan Braun added an RBI double in the eighth.

Fiers continued his string of strong performances since he was recalled from Triple-A Nashville on May 29. Fiers was coming off a loss to the Miami Marlins where he gave up two runs in 7 1-3 innings – snapping a scoreless streak of 21 1-3 innings.

Monday’s loss was another setback for the Brewers, who announced earlier in the day that ace Zack Greinke will skip his scheduled start Wednesday and isn’t scheduled to start again until the Brewers’ July 24 game at Philadelphia.

Manager Ron Roenicke said Greinke was fatigued and thrown off his routine after making three straight starts – a July 7 game where he was ejected in the first inning, another start the following day and again in the Brewers’ first game after the All-Star break.

Greinke said before the game that he was ”fine” with Roenicke’s decision but was reluctant to discuss it. Greinke has been subject to trade speculation in recent weeks, with the Brewers mired in fourth in the NL Central.

The Cardinals had a scoring chance in the fourth when Yadier Molina hit a one-out double and David Freese walked. But Fiers got Matt Carpenter to fly out to center – allowing Molina to take third base – then got Daniel Descalso to ground out and end the inning.

Milwaukee had a chance with two outs in the fifth when a sharp grounder by Cody Ransom glanced off the glove of Freese at third base, allowing Ransom to take second base on a play that was ruled a double. But Descalso charged a soft grounder by Fiers and threw him out, ending the inning.

Descalso led off the seventh with a single, and Lynn remained in the game to hit. After taking a ball from Fiers, Lynn put two bunt attempts foul then struck out on another bunt attempt. Rafael Furcal hit a grounder back to Fiers, who bobbled the ball but recovered in time to throw Furcal out at first as Descalso took second. Fiers then got Skip Schumaker to line out, ending the inning.

Francisco Rodriguez relieved Fiers in the eighth and gave up a leadoff single to Matt Holliday, but got out of the inning without giving up a run.

Braun then gave the Brewers some breathing room, hitting a double to score Norichika Aoki. Braun took third on the throw home.

— Associated Press —

Scott Rolen hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the eighth inning Sunday night, sending the Cincinnati Reds to a 4-2 victory and three-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Reds’ sixth straight win matched their best surge of the season, moved them a season-high 12 games over .500, and jumped them a game ahead of Pittsburgh for the NL Central lead. St. Louis fell 4 1/2 games back.

Rolen’s two-out single off Mitchell Boggs snapped a 2-all tie and provided a satisfying moment for the 37-year-old third baseman, limited all season by a bad shoulder and back. Jake Westbrook (7-8) set up the winning rally with a walk, a wild pitch and a hit batter.

Homer Bailey (8-6) went eight innings during a fill-in start for Johnny Cueto, sidelined by a blister.

With the 39,280 fans on their feet chanting ”sweep,” Aroldis Chapman fanned the side in the ninth for his 13th save in 17 chances. The hard-throwing left-hander pitched in all three games of the series – only the second time he’s gone three days in a row during his career. The other time was in 2010, when he helped the Reds on their push to the NL Central title.

Bailey was scheduled to start next Tuesday, but got pushed up two days after Cueto developed a blister on the index finger of his pitching hand during a bullpen throwing session. It was a break for the Cardinals – Cueto leads the Reds with 10 wins and is third in the NL with a 2.39 ERA.

Joey Votto singled and had an RBI double, his first hits of the series. Votto hasn’t gone more than two games without a hit this season.

Yadier Molina had a single, a run-scoring double and his second homer of the series, getting loudly booed as he rounded the bases in the sixth after tying it at 2. Molina has been booed during every at-bat since his fight with Brandon Phillips in 2010 at Great American Ball Park.

The solo shot made it 68 straight games with a homer at the ballpark, the longest streak since there were 80 consecutive games with a homer at Coors Field in 2002-03.

Matt Holliday had a pair of hits and extended his hitting streak to 14 games, the longest by a Cardinal this season.

Cardinals first baseman Lance Berkman made his first start since tearing cartilage in his right knee on May 19. He reached on first baseman Votto’s error in the first inning, then came all the way around to score standing up on Molina’s double to the gap in left-center.

Berkman slowed to a walk once he crossed the plate and got teased by teammates when he reached the dugout after his first-to-home dash.

Molina undercut the rally by getting caught trying to advance to third base on a pickoff throw.

— Associated Press —