ST. LOUIS _ Every time one team scored, the other answered to tie the game in the following half inning.
Until the ninth.
Eric Thames' two-out, two-run home run off Cardinals reliever Seung-Hwan Oh gave the Brewers a 6-4 lead in the top of the ninth. The Cardinals could not answer in the bottom of the frame and dropped their third straight to the division-leading Brewers. The Cardinals are now 30-35.
The game had the feel of a shootout early on. Cardinals starter Michael Wacha lasted just four innings. He gave up seven hits and four earned runs, including a 489-foot home run in the second inning to Keon Broxton, the longest home run in the history of Busch Stadium III.
The Cardinals struck first in the bottom of the first inning. Matt Carpenter, batting leadoff for the ninth straight game, extended his hitting streak to nine with a double off the wall. Carpenter advanced to second on a groundout from Dexter Fowler and then scored on a single from Stephen Piscotty. Piscotty later scored on another single off the bat of Aledmys Diaz.
The Brewers immediately responded in the top of the second with Broxton's two-run homer. They then took the lead in the top of the third when Domingo Santana knocked in leadoff man Eric Sogard.
Dexter Fowler singlehandedly put the Cardinals back into a tie for the lead with a solo home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the third. It was Fowler's 10th homer of the season, all coming from the left side of the plate.
In the fifth, Wacha allowed a double to Sogard, a single to Thames and then a walk to Santana to load the bases before he was finally removed from the game. Reliever John Brebbia inherited the mess but managed to limit the damage to only one run. Travis Shaw hit an RBI single into right field to give the Brewers the lead, but Stephen Piscotty threw a laser to catcher Yadier Molina, who tagged out Thames at the plate. Next, Hernan Perez tried to plate Santana from third with a bunt but knocked the ball right to Brebbia, who easily got the ball to Molina in time to tag Santana out. Brebbia ended the inning with a strikeout of Jett Bandy.
Carpenter hit his second double of the game to lead off the bottom of the fifth and Fowler drove him home the next at-bat to knot the score back up. The next three innings, the bullpens, not considered the strength of either team, dominated. Until Oh surrendered the homer to Thames.
Thames, who had hit just three home runs in his previous 23 games entering the series, hit two homers in the series.
