MILWAUKEE (AP) – Michael Wacha cooled off NL MVP Christian Yelich, Matt Carpenter and Marcell Ozuna each went deep, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-3 on Wednesday to avoid being swept.
Yelich came in batting .556 with four home runs and 10 RBIs in the series, but he was 0 for 2 with a strikeout and a walk against Wacha. Yelich did single in a run in the eighth off Andrew Miller.
Wacha (1-0) bounced back after a tough start Thursday against the Dodgers. He struck out seven over six innings, allowing two runs and five hits to improve to 6-0 career against the Brewers.
Relief pitcher Aaron Wilkerson spoiled Wacha’s bid for a shutout in the fifth with a two-run homer, his first major league hit.
Jordan Hicks pitched the ninth for his fourth save.
Milwaukee starter Corbin Burnes (0-2) got beat by the long ball again. He surrendered three home runs in each of his first three starts, then coughed up two more against St. Louis. He’s allowed a major-league-most 11 on the season.
Ozuna went deep in the second and Carpenter in the fourth. It was Ozuna’s fourth consecutive game with a homer and eighth overall.
The Brewers had won nine of 10 against St. Louis, including four in a row, but two RBI singles by Matt Weiters and one apiece by Paul DeJong and Kolten Wong helped snap that streak. DeJong went 4 for 5.
Burnes struggled through 3 1/3 innings, allowed nine hits, walked two and struck out three.
