MILWAUKEE _ It was better late than never for the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night.
They registered a 4-3 walk-off victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Miller Park on Jonathan Villar's single to left field, but their celebration was delayed after manager Mike Matheny asked umpires to review the play at the plate.
Villar worked a full count against Seung Hwan Oh before slapping a single to left on Oh's seventh offering. Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who'd walked to lead off the inning, came around to score from second and slid into home just as Tommy Pham's throw arrived.
Catcher Yadier Molina immediately signaled to Matheny to challenge the safe call made by home-plate umpire Will Little and he did so while both teams lingered on the field. After a review of 1 minute, 29 seconds Little's safe call was confirmed, and Milwaukee's delayed celebration took place near second base as Villar's teammates mobbed him.
The Brewers got the leadoff runner aboard in the ninth when Nieuwenhuis drew a walk from Trevor Rosenthal. Hernan Perez bunted Nieuwenhuis up, then in the midst of Ramon Flores' at-bat Rosenthal had to leave with an unspecified injury.
Oh replaced Rosenthal, but he nicked Flores with a pitch to put two on. Pinch-hitter Andy Wilkins struck out to bring up Villar, who then delivered the game-winner.
Chris Carter hit a pair of home runs and Jonathan Lucroy added another for the Brewers, who were swept in a rainy three-game series in St. Louis last weekend.
Brewers starter Jimmy Nelson labored through six innings but limited the Cardinals to a pair of runs while working out of jams in the fifth and sixth. He allowed six hits and walked four while striking out a pair over 103 pitches.
St. Louis scored two runs in the third. The trouble started when Nelson walked starter Michael Wacha with one out, and Greg Garcia, Aledmys Diaz and Matt Holliday all followed with singles to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead.
Wacha held that advantage until the sixth, when Lucroy homered to left-center with one out. Matheny asked for and received a crew chief review, as the homer bounced back onto the field, but the call was upheld after a review of 1:34.
Four pitches later, Carter homered to right-center to put the Brewers back in front at 3-2. It was Carter's 15th career multi-homer game and the third time this season Milwaukee hit consecutive homers.
Tyler Thornburg pitched a scoreless seventh, then Wacha was chased in the bottom half after Villar rocketed a line drive off his right heel.
Will Smith came on for the eighth but made a big mistake just three pitches in when he hung an 0-2 slider that Yadier Molina golfed out to left for a leadoff homer.
Smith maintained the tie, and after striking out Garcia to open the ninth he made way for Jeremy Jeffress. Jeffress got a ground ball to start, but Villar booted it for his second error of the game.
Pham followed with a single to put two on, but Jeffress got Stephen Piscotty and pinch-hitter Jhonny Peralta to fly out to right and escaped.
