ST. LOUIS _ At times, there is no figuring out baseball.
At the end of spring training, would you have bet even a nickel that Jesus Aguilar would be the last Milwaukee Brewers position player to hit a home run this season?
Aguilar was nicknamed "Babe" in exhibition play because he seemingly hit a home run every day. It was really only seven but he also had four doubles and batted .452 with 1.376 OPS.
Yet, there Aguilar was, the only position player on the team without a home run as he stepped to the plate as a pinch-hitter Thursday night in the seventh inning at Busch Stadium. This time, he blasted a pitch from reliever Matt Bowman into the left-field bleachers for his first major league homer, the decisive blow in the Brewers' 5-4 victory over St. Louis.
By taking two of three in the rain-shortened visit, the Brewers snapped a string of 17 consecutive series (0-15-2) against the Cardinals without winning one, dating to April 2014.
St. Louis right-hander Adam Wainwright has a long history of success against the Brewers, including his outing at Miller Park on April 21 (five innings, two runs, nine strikeouts). In 36 previous outings (29 starts), he was 15-8 with a 2.19 earned run average, by far his best showing against any opponent.
When the Cardinals scored three runs in the second inning against Brewers starter Chase Anderson to give Wainwright a 3-0 lead, he was in position again to cruise. But the Brewers got after him in the third inning, sending nine hitters to the plate to tie the score.
Hernan Perez, Travis Shaw (two RBIs) and Keon Broxton (RBI) all contributed doubles to that outburst, running up Wainwright's pitch count. But the Cardinals also kept after Anderson, pushing across the go-ahead run in the bottom of the inning and threatening to do more until Randal Grichuk grounded into a double play.
But Wainwright couldn't settle in, either. He worked out of a jam in the fourth when Domingo Santana ripped a liner right at Grichuk with two on and two down.
Broxton drew the Brewers even when he blasted a 3-2 cutter out to left with one out in the fifth for his second homer of the season. At that point, Broxton had a single, double and homer in three at-bats.
Needing a triple for the cycle, Broxton sent a sinking liner to right in the seventh that substitute Jose Martinez trapped with a sliding effort for a single. Had it skipped past Martinez, Broxton might have had the three-bagger he needed.
