MILWAUKEE — Jesus Aguilar homered to break up rookie Jack Flaherty's no-hit bid in the seventh inning, then homered again in the ninth to lift the Milwaukee Brewers over the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 on Friday night.
Both teams got just three hits. The benches and bullpens briefly cleared in the eighth after Eric Sogard slid into St. Louis shortstop Yairo Munoz, who caught a wide throw on a bunt play in the eighth.
Cardinals reliever Bud Norris (3-2) started the ninth by striking out Travis Shaw. Aguilar followed with a drive an opposite-field drive to right for his 16th home run.
Corey Knebel (1-0) pitched the ninth for the NL Central leaders.
With one out in the seventh, Aguilar drove an 83 mph slider from Flaherty into the Brewers bullpen in left, where reliever Jeremy Jeffress caught the ball on the fly. A woman who was knitting — it appeared to be crochet, actually — in the front row behind home plate barely flinched as Aguilar connected.
Flaherty matched a career high by striking out 13 in seven innings, allowing just one hit. The Cardinals played stellar defense behind him after giving up six unearned runs with a season-high four errors in Thursday's 11-3 loss to Milwaukee. Munoz robbed Jonathan Villar of a base hit in the fifth with a nice running backhand stab of a liner tailing away from him.
Matt Carpenter walked, advanced on a sacrifice by Harrison Bader and scored on Marcell Ozuna's liner up the middle in the third.
Brewers starter Junior Guerra allowed one run and three hits with four walks and seven strikeouts in five-plus innings.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Cardinals: INF Paul DeJong (left hand fracture) took batting practice and is anxious to return.
Brewers: LF Ryan Braun missed his second consecutive game after receiving a cryotherapy injection in his troublesome right thumb Wednesday in Los Angeles. . LHP Wade Miley (right oblique strain) made a rehab start for Double-A Biloxi. He went two innings and allowed a run on three hits and struck out three.
UP NEXT
Cardinals: RHP Miles Mikolas (7-2, 2.69 ERA) makes his third start against the Brewers this season. He won 8-4 in his Cardinals' debut on April 2.
Brewers: RHP Chase Anderson (5-6, 4.54 ERA) makes his second start this season against the Cardinals. He is 2-2 with a 3.19 ERA in 10 career outings, including a no-decision April 3 at Miller Park.