Brewers fall to Cardinals again, trail by 4 games

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Matt Adams and Oscar Taveras homered, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-3 on Saturday night to open a four-game lead in the NL Central.

Lance Lynn pitched six effective innings as St. Louis won for the seventh time in its last eight games. Trevor Rosenthal got three outs for his 43rd save in 48 chances.

The Brewers have lost 10 of 11. Ryan Braun had an RBI single in the first, and Lyle Overbay doubled home a run in the sixth.

Milwaukee right-hander Kyle Lohse (12-9) lasted just four innings. He allowed five runs and four hits with two walks.

Adams, who missed the first two games of the series with a strained left oblique, hit a two-run drive in the first for his 14th homer. Taveras had a two-run shot of his own in the fourth, lifting the Cardinals to a 5-2 lead.

St. Louis finished with just four hits and made three errors in the first inning, leading to a pair of unearned runs.

Adams booted a leadoff grounder to first, allowing Scooter Gennett to reach. Left fielder Matt Holliday made two errors on one play, with Gennett scoring on Braun's single and Gerardo Parra coming home on the fielding trouble.

Lynn (15-8) allowed an earned run and five hits while improving to 4-0 with a 2.45 ERA in his last six starts. He struck out six and walked four.

Since starting the season 20-8, the Brewers are 54-60. Six of their seven hits Saturday night were doubles, but Milwaukee went 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position.

Sixteen of the Cardinals' final 20 games are against teams with losing records.

Lohse struck out five and walked two while falling to 1-4 with a 7.01 ERA in his last six starts.