A sacrifice fly and two singles were all the offense the St Louis Cardinals needed to prevent the Milwaukee Brewers from sweeping the Redbirds, as St Louis held on for a 3-2 win Sunday, Sept. 14 at American Family Field.

Four of the Cardinals’ six hits came in the second inning, starting with a leadoff single to Thomas Saggese and double to Nolan Gorman. Pedro Pagés brought home Saggese with a sacrifice fly. After a walk to Jordan Walker, José Fermín and Nathan Church added RBI singles. The Cardinals attempted to pad their lead on Lars Nootbaar’s walk, but Fermín was caught in a run down as he tried to steal home.

The Brewers claimed eight hits and received two walks, but were only able to score on solo home runs by Caleb Durbin in the fourth and Danny Jansen in the fifth. The Cardinals defense prevented the Brewers from advancing their runners, stranding eight on the base paths as Milwaukee went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Miles Mikolas went five innings in the win, allowing both runs on five hits, but striking out five. The bullpen added another four strikeouts, with Riley O’Brien earning his fourth save of the year.

With the Mets snapping their losing skid, the Cardinals (73-77) remain four games behind them for the third wild card with 12 games remaining in the season. The Cardinals return home to Busch Stadium for the start of a three-game series against the Reds. Matthew Liberatore will take the mound for St Louis, with first pitch at 6:45 p.m.