St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Kolten Wong highlighted an offensive attack that provided Justin Masterson plenty of support in his St. Louis debut and powered the Cardinals to a 9-7 win over the Milwaukee Brewers at Busch Stadium.
Wong homered among his three hits and had three RBI for the Cardinals, who are two games behind the NL Central-leading Brewers.
Masterson (1-0), acquired from Cleveland on Wednesday, gave up five runs on seven hits and three walks in six innings. It was his first action since a DL stint for right knee inflammation.
Ryan Braun and Scooter Gennett both had two RBI for Milwaukee, which saw starter Kyle Lohse (11-6) get tagged for nine runs -- seven earned -- on nine hits and three walks in four-plus innings.
The Brewers threatened in the ninth against St. Louis closer Trevor Rosenthal.
After Jean Segura led off with a first-pitch double to right field, Elian Herrera appeared to have been hit by a pitch. The Cardinals, however, challenged the play and it was overturned.
Segura advanced on a Herrera groundout to second, but Rosenthal struck out Carlos Gomez and trade-deadline addition Gerardo Parra swinging to end the game and earn his 33rd save of the season.
The Brewers got a run in the first inning when Parra scored on a two-out single by Aramis Ramirez. Parra had walked and stole second before Ramirez ripped a Masterson pitch down the third-base line.
St. Louis quickly tied the game in the bottom of the first with a homer to center field from Wong, then sent nine men to the plate while scoring five second-inning runs -- four with two outs.
The Cardinals grabbed the lead on Jhonny Peralta's leadoff blast to left- center field. Lohse retired the next two batters, but loaded the bases on two walks sandwiched around a Masterson single. Wong hit a two-run single to right and came around on an error after his baserunning drew a throw to third on Matt Holliday's RBI single.
Milwaukee trimmed its deficit to 6-4 in the fourth. Braun and Ramirez opened the inning with consecutive singles and a bobble on a comebacker to the mound cost Masterson a double play.
After Lyle Overbay walked to load the bases with one out, Gennett ripped a two-run double to the gap in left-center field and Segura hit an RBI groundout to third.
The Cardinals restored their three-run lead in the home fourth when Tony Cruz evaded catcher Jonathan Lucroy's tag and scored on Matt Carpenter's sacrifice fly to left.
Milwaukee closed to within two again on a Braun RBI groundout in the fifth, but Oscar Taveras plated a pair with a bases-loaded double in the bottom of the frame to make it 9-5.
Kevin Siegrist relieved Masterson to begin the seventh and gave up an RBI double to Gomez, who swiped third and scored on Braun's grounder to short.
Game Notes
Masterson was 4-6 with a 5.51 ERA in 19 starts for the Indians this year ... Ramirez had three hits ... The Cardinals were 4-for-12 with runners in scoring position, while Milwaukee finished 2-for-12 in such situations.
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