Brewers erupt, deal Cards a bad beat with rout

ST. LOUIS — On a night when the Cardinals could have climbed to the top of the National League Wild Card standings, they instead played themselves right out of postseason position. With yet another ugly performance in front of the home crowd on Thursday, the Cardinals took a 12-5 punch to the gut from the Brewers, who hadn’t scored that many off St. Louis since July 2010.

Behind a three-RBI night from Hernan Perez and three home runs from the bottom half of their order, the Brewers battered a Cardinals team that had won 11 of the first 14 meetings between the two clubs. The loss not only dropped the Cardinals to 30-38 at Busch Stadium this season, but it bumped them out of a tie with the Mets for the second Wild Card spot.

The Giants, who own the top Wild Card spot, now hold a one-game advantage over the Cardinals in that race.

“We’re just going to have to continue to figure out how to play good baseball every single night,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “It doesn’t matter where we are. We have shaken up as many things as we could possibly shake up. We just have to go play good baseball. I don’t care where. With this amount of time left, that’s all there is to it.”

The Brewers, winners in seven of their last eight, jumped on Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia for five runs over the first four innings. Domingo Santana and Orlando Arcia connected for homers on consecutive pitches in the second, and Brewers starter Junior Guerra sparked a two-run third with the first of his two hits on a night in which he improved his record to 8-3.

A six-run sixth in which the Brewers sent 10 batters to the plate against relievers Mike Mayers and Dean Kiekhefer erased the chance for any potential late-inning intrigue. Perez tied his career high with a four-hit night. Arcia turned in a three-hit game. And the top two hitters in Milwaukee’s lineup (Jonathan Villar and Keon Broxton) combined to find their way to the basepaths seven times. Every Brewers starter not named Ryan Braun had a hit, and Braun contributed a pair of RBIs.

“This is largely a group that’s going to be around next year, and there’s competition for playing time. I think that helps,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “I don’t think that’s the only thing going on, but I think that helps. Our effort … has not changed.”

The Cardinals, who haven’t won a home series since July 18-21, fell to 2-8 in the opening game of a homestand this season.

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDCrew takes control: Santana and Arcia smacked consecutive pitches from Garcia with two outs in the second for the Brewers’ seventh back-to-back home runs this season, and a 2-1 lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Santana’s line-drive shot was impressive, leaving the bat at 110 mph with a 21-degree launch angle and landing a projected 440 feet away …

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