ST. LOUIS _ Not only are the Cardinals playing better since Mike Shildt became manager, their luck is getting better too.
The Cardinals scored three runs in the third inning, all unearned after a dropped third strike prolonged the inning, and got two more on the sixth when they followed an error and a walk with a triple as they moved into a wild-card spot with a 7-2 win over the Brewers on Saturday night at Busch Stadium.
Their luck isn't entirely good though. Second baseman Kolten Wong left the game early with a right elbow contusion after he was hit on a wayward pickoff throw. And Jose Martinez was a scratch from the starting lineup with right hip tightness, though he did appear as a pinch hitter.
When the Cardinals fired Mike Matheny, they were four games out of the last wild-card spot and had three teams between them and Atlanta. The Cardinals were six games in back of Milwaukee, which had the first wild-card spot on that day. The Cardinals climbed over San Francisco, Colorado, Los Angeles and now Milwaukee. They have a half-game edge on the Brewers with one game to go in their weekend series on Sunday.
Matt Carpenter's streak of reaching first safely ended at 35 games. It was the third-longest streak in the majors this season. He nearly got on in the first but right fielder Keon Broxton chased down a deep fly ball. Carpenter followed by reaching on a fielder's choice (which doesn't count), a ground out to first and a ground out to short. Patrick Wisdom grounded out to end the eighth inning with Carpenter on deck for one last chance.
It was a spirited game that saw Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell get ejected in the first inning after starter Wade Miley was warned for throwing a pitch behind Tyler O'Neill. Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas had hit Lorenzo Cain in the first inning. After home plate umpire Cory Blaser warned both teams, Counsell came out to argue and ended up getting ejected.
The teams swapped home runs in the second inning, with Lorenzo Shaw going deep for the Brewers and then Marcell Ozuna going even deeper, with a 450-foot shot into Big Mac Land in left.
Then came the third inning, where everything got weird. Wong led off with a single and took a pickoff throw on the elbow as first baseman Jesus Aguilar charged the plate for a bunt while pitcher Wade Miley threw to first. Had the ball not hit Wong, it would have gone down the line and he would have been at least at second.
After two force plays, the Cardinals had Carpenter at first with two outs. Molina looked to have struck out, but strike three went all the way to the backstop off catcher Erik Kratz's glove. Tyler O'Neill, filling in for Martinez, dropped a very catchable blooper into shallow right that landed untouched, with Carpenter scoring from second. Ozuna walked to load the bases and Paul DeJong beat the Brewers shift with a single up the middle that scored two runs and made it 4-1.
Mikolas, meanwhile, was in the middle of retiring nine straight Brewers before giving up a single in the fifth. The Brewers had runners on second and third with one out in the sixth but Mikolas struck out Travis Shaw and then struck out pinch hitter Eric Thames looking on a pitch that looked to be out of the zone.
The Cardinals added two in the sixth with just one hit. DeJong was safe on a throwing error when Aguilar couldn't handle Orlando Arcia's low throw and Jedd Gyorko walked. Harrison Bader tripled into the gap in right center and both scored.
Mikolas had seven strikeouts and no walks in six innings as he improved to 13-3.
