Randy Wolf kept the St. Louis Cardinals quiet and the Milwaukee Brewers hit three home runs in a 4-1 victory on Thursday that opened a four-game series between the National League Central Division rivals.

Wolf (6-7) pitched 6 1/3 innings and allowed a run and four hits. Milwaukee led 3-0 before Wolf gave up a solo home run to Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols in the seventh.

John Axford pitched the ninth and allowed a walk and struck out one to earn his ninth save of the season.

The Brewers scored all of their runs with the long ball, getting homers from Casey McGehee, George Kottaras and Prince Fielder.

McGehee made it 1-0 with a solo shot in the second and Kottaras extended Milwaukee's lead to 3-0 with a two-run homer in the fifth. After Pujols’ homered, Fielder answered with a home run to make it 4-1.

Blake Hawksworth (2-5) pitched well but got no run support. He allowed three runs and six hits in six innings with a walk and seven strikeouts.