MILWAUKEE _ Whether he was behind the plate or at the plate on this road trip, there have been times when Yadier Molina has yanked the Cardinals in a direction they have not gone enough recently.
He steered Jack Flaherty through six no-hit innings Friday night. He steadied Miles Mikolas after a difficult first inning Saturday afternoon. And at the same time he hit two home runs to provide all of the Cardinals' runs in a 3-2 reset against the Brewers at Miller Park. The two home runs gave Molina his sixth multi-homer game of his career and the second on this road trip.
In the sixth inning, Molina's 11th homer of the season vaulted the Cardinals back from a 2-1 deficit to the final score.
Both of the Brewers' runs had scored in the first inning.
Mikolas walked a batter, hit a batter, allowed a sacrifice fly, and also had two singles scattered in there as he tried to navigate the trickiest inning of his start. He cooled the trouble with a strikeout, and after a leadoff single in the second inning he retired the next 15 consecutive Brewers he faced. Mikolas (8-2) allowed two runs on three hits through 62/3 innings. He struck out five.
Brewers starter Chase Anderson struck out nine, and seven of them were called strike threes.
Bud Norris got the save a night after taking the loss.
The slugger who flipped the game on the Cardinals' the previous night with two home runs, including a walk-off blast, Jesus Aguilar had a chance to do it again Saturday.
In the eighth inning, a hit batter, an infield single, and a walk loaded the bases for the Brewers and brought Aguilar to the plate against Sam Tuivailala. Out of recent success and lack of preferred options all around him, Tuivailala has been given consistent late-inning assignments in such binds, and he entered with a runner on base left by lefty Austin Gomber.
Tuivailala fell behind with the first pitch. He leveled the count, 1-1, with the next, and then he used Aguilar's eagerness against him.
Tuivailala got the first baseman to chop a grounder to shortstop, and Yairo Munoz lasered a throw to first to send the game into the ninth with the Cardinals still leading.
