Cards win series in Milwaukee

Cards win series in Milwaukee

MLB.com MILWAUKEE — The Cardinals aren't quite the same this season, but one wouldn't know it by watching them continue to torment the Brewers.

Matt Adams and Randal Grichuk hit solo home runs, Mike Leake pitched seven innings with a season-high 10 strikeouts and the Cardinals beat the Brewers for the ninth time in 12 tries this season, 5-1, at Miller Park in Sunday's first-half finale. The Cardinals have won every series between the teams since May 2014, including four series this season, and are 29-12 at Miller Park since the start of 2012.

On Sunday, the Cardinals beat the Brewers' best starter, Junior Guerra, who was 3-0 with a 0.81 ERA in his past three games, including consecutive scoreless starts against the Dodgers and Nationals that spanned 15 1/3 innings. Adams tied the game at 1 when he wrapped a home run around the right-field foul pole in the second inning (tracked at 455 feet by Statcast™) and Grichuk provided insurance with a long ball in the sixth, marking the second time in Guerra's 13 starts that he surrendered multiple homers.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Schtoink and a score: Scoring a runner from first base typically requires a ball to be hit down the line, in the gap or over the fence, but the Cardinals needed none of those options to take the lead in the fifth. Following a two-out single that hit off Guerra's leg, Aledmys Diaz scooted home on a Stephen Piscotty bloop single to center field. Down 1-2 in the count, Piscotty hit a ruptured duck that went in and out of a diving Brewers center fielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis' glove. As Nieuwenhuis scrambled to locate the ball, Diaz raced 270 feet around the bases and put St. Louis up, 2-1.

All-Star sendoff: The Brewers held a brief pregame ceremony to honor their lone All-Star Game representative, Jonathan Lucroy, who returned the favor by delivering a two-out RBI single in the first for a 1-0 lead against Leake. The Milwaukee catcher continues to mash in his career against Leake, improving to 19-for-38.

Adams family: Adams came in on an 0-for-27 skid, with his last hit coming June 28.

In the second against Guerra, Adams snapped that streak with a majestit blast down the right-field line.

By Adam McCalvy and Curt Hogg