Milwaukee Brewers stun St. Louis Cardinals with Domingo Santana's blast in ninth

ST. LOUIS -- Domingo Santana had a simple game plan for his ninth inning at-bat Wednesday.

"Just look for a heater," the Milwaukee Brewers' right fielder said.

Upon getting said heater from St. Louis Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal, Santana crushed it 440 feet into the seats in deep right-center field, snapping a tie and lifting Milwaukee to a 6-4 victory at Busch Stadium.

Santana's first homer of the year came on an 0-1 fastball that was traveling 98 mph when it got to the plate and a whole lot faster when it arced into the bleachers.

"Domingo really got into that ball," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "Upper-level closers, it's hard to score against them. That was a nice job by (Santana)."

Prior to Santana's game-winning blast, pinch-hitter Kirk Nieuwenhuis worked a walk from Rosenthal (0-1) on a full-count pitch after falling behind 1-2, a plate appearance Counsell praised as impressive.

The homer made a winner of reliever Michael Blazek (1-0), a former Cardinal who coughed up a 4-3 lead in the eighth when he yielded a solo homer to pinch-hitter Brandon Moss.

St. Louis (4-4) saw its four-game winning streak end on an evening where it was sloppy in the field, committing a pair of errors, and managed only three hits after a three-run first inning against starter Chase Anderson.

Milwaukee (4-4) gifted the Cardinals a fourth out in the inning, courtesy of a two-out throwing error by third baseman Colin Walsh on Stephen Piscotty's bouncer. Randal Grichuk cashed it in with a two-run double and scored on a Yadier Molina single.

St. Louis did next to nothing over Anderson's last five innings, picking up one hit -- a fly ball double by Jeremy Hazelbaker in the sixth that plopped just inside the right field foul line. But that hit was erased when catcher Jonathan Lucroy nailed Hazelbaker trying to steal third.

It was the capper of a big night for Lucroy, who tagged starter Mike Leake for three hits and two RBIs, making him 15-of-33 in his career against Leake. But like most of his teammates and manager, he was most impressed by Santana's bomb off Rosenthal, who has allowed only 12 homers in three-plus big league seasons.

"He got the top hand on it," Lucroy said of Santana. "What a big hit."

"I made a mistake over the middle of the plate and he was ready to hit," Rosenthal said of Santana.

Jeremy Jeffress worked around Molina's two-out single in the ninth for his fourth save in as many tries, inducing a game-ending fielder's choice chopper from pinch-hitter Matt Adams.

Lucroy opened the night's scoring with a two-out ground-rule double down the right field line, scoring Santana, who slammed the game's first pitch off the wall in right-center for a double.

After the Cardinals' first inning outburst, Lucroy keyed the next two Brewers' rallies. After leading off the fourth with a single, Lucroy moved around to third on two infield outs and scored on a single by Ramon Flores.

An inning later, Lucroy's two-out single up the middle plated Ryan Braun with the tying run, and Lucroy hustled home from first when Chris Carter doubled off the right field wall.

Neither starter figured into the decision. Leake worked six innings, yielding eight hits and four runs with a walk and six strikeouts. Anderson pitched six innings as well, giving up only four hits and three unearned runs with two walks and four strikeouts.

Anderson was in line for the win until Moss' game-tying homer, but Santana made sure Anderson's effort wasn't completely wasted with what he said was his best moment as a major leaguer.

"It feels good, and it feels better because we won the game," Santana said.

NOTES: Milwaukee SS Jonathan Villar (ankle) was held out of Wednesday night's lineup, although manager Craig Counsell said he was available for pinch-hit duty if needed. Villar played in each of the team's first seven games. ... St. Louis LHP Marco Gonzales (elbow) has elected to undergo Tommy John surgery and will miss the season's remainder. General manager John Mozeliak said the operation could happen as early as Friday. ... Cardinals OF Tommy Pham (left oblique), who was injured April 3 in Pittsburgh, could start a rehab assignment late next week.