Roster moves by a St Louis Cardinals squad desperate to regain playoff footing had no effect against Milwaukee’s Frankie Montas, as the birds on the bat were held to just six hits in a 3-2 loss to the Brewers on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium.

Montas limited the Cardinals to just one hit in his seven innings of work, allowing one walk while striking out three. That provided support for Milwaukee’s Sal Frelick and Joey Ortiz, who singled runs in the second and seventh innings. William Contreras added an RBI double in the eighth to extend the lead, which provided critical as Matt Carpenter hit a two-run home run off reliever Nick Mears in the bottom of the eighth. The Cardinals loaded the bases in the ninth, but Devin Williams struck out Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Gorman to end the game and pick up his fifth save of the year. Erich Fedde took the loss after 5.2 innings, allowing two runs on six hits and four walks while striking out two.

Before the game, the Cardinals released Brandon Crawford and shuffled Jordan Walker back to AAA Memphis, calling up Luken Baker. Still, the Cardinals (61-64) are now 12 games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central and fall a half-game behind the Cubs for second in the division. Worse, the Cardinals are now six games behind the Braves for the third wild card spot, going 5-12 this month. The Cardinals look to rebound with the second game in the home stand against Milwaukee on Wednesday evening, with first pitch at 6:45.