ST. LOUIS (AP) — Mike Moustakas stopped short of calling Milwaukee’s rain-shortened victory over the St. Louis Cardinals a must win.

“But it was pretty important,” he said.

Moustakas homered and Keston Hiura drove in a pair of runs to lead the reeling Brewers to just their third win in the last nine, 5-3 over the Cardinals on Wednesday night.

The game was stopped after 7 1/2 innings and made official following a rain delay of 66 minutes.

Milwaukee broke a six-game losing streak against the Cardinals, who were knocked out of first place in the NL Central — falling one-half game behind the Cubs. Chicago beat San Francisco 12-11.

The Brewers are in third, 3 1/2 behind the Cubs.

Milwaukee lost four of the first five in the six-game trip including the opening two of the three-game set to the Cardinals.

“It was a tough trip, but we ended on a good note,” manager Craig Counsell said.

Adrian Houser (6-5) gave up three runs — one earned — and six hits in 5 1/3 innings. It marked the third straight start he’s allowed just one earned run. Houser struck out six and walked two.

“You lose those first two, but you make some ground up by getting that last one,” Houser said. “We (didn’t) get swept, it’s a big step.”

Junior Guerra got the last out in the bottom of the seventh and earned his third save.

Moustakas, who also walked three times, hit a three-run homer in the first off Adam Wainwright (9-9) to highlight a four-run outburst. Hiura had run-scoring hits in the first and fourth innings for a 5-0 lead.

“He made a really good pitch and I got lucky,” Moustakas said of his 31st homer of the season. “I was able to stay back just enough and get the barrel to the ball.”

Wainwright gave up five runs and eight hits over five innings.

“I had horrible fastball command,” Wainwright said. “Did not have good stuff and was just out there trying to battle.”

The Brewers needed just 17 pitches to go in front 4-0 as five of the first six hitters had hits.

“Great first inning,” Counsell said. “That was the game for us offensively.”

Moustakas added: “This offense, we can break out at any time. We put together some really good at-bats early in the game.”

St. Louis capitalized on a pair of errors to climb to 5-2 in the fifth. Yadier Molina’s double brought the Cardinals to 5-3 in the sixth.

UP NEXT
Brewers: RHP Jordan Lyles (7-8, 4.96 ERA) will face Arizona RHP Merrill Kelly (9-12, 4.63) on Friday in the first of a three-game series in Milwaukee. Lyles has a 7.23 ERA in 20 career games against Arizona. He is making his fifth start for the Brewers after being acquired from Pirrtsburgh in exchange for RHP Cody Ponce on July 29.
Cardinals: RHP Miles Mikolas (7-13) squares off against Colorado RHP German Marquez (12-5, 4.71 ERA) on Thursday in the first of a four-game set in St. Louis. Mikolas is 0-0 with a 5.40 ERA in four career appearances vs the Rockies.

The Atlantic Volleyball team has more confidence and higher expectations heading into Michelle Blake’s 2nd year as Head Coach. The Trojans graduated a few valuable seniors off of last year’s squad but a lot of underclassmen got a lot of playing time last year on a youthful team. That year of experience and a strong summer working together has the Trojans shooting for loftier goals this season. Coach Blake said the girls set their own goals for the season, which included racking up multiple conference wins.

Atlantic returns setter Haley Rasmussen, who had 429 assists last year, and kills leader Alyssa Derby (180). Coach Blake expects them to take on even more of a leadership role this season, starting with Rasmussen.

The Trojans are coming off an 8-28 season in 2018. The Trojans were close in a number of matches last year but fell short more often than not in those tight sets and matches. Coach Blake said the team has shown signs of flipping that scenario this season during summer play.

Atlantic will hold their Trojan night scrimmage on the 27th and then open up regular season play on the 31st at the AHSTW Invitational. You can hear the full interview with Coach Blake on our first week of the fall Saturday Morning Coaches Show on August 31st at 8:30am.