Jim Edmonds had a big game and the Milwaukee Brewers chased Chris Carpenter early en route to an easy 12-5 victory Saturday at Busch Stadium.

Milwaukee scored in each of the first five innings and has taken two of the first three games of this four-game set between National League Central Division rivals.

Edmonds went had four hits, including a homer, and finished with three RBIs and three runs scored. Rickie Weeks also homered and finished with two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored for the Brewers, who banged out 19 hits and had six players finish with multi-hit games.

Carpenter (9-2) struggled for the second time this season against the Brewers. He allowed seven runs and seven hits in five innings back on April 11, and was even worse Saturday, yielding eight runs and nine hits in just three frames. It was his first loss since May 13 against the Houston Astros.

Winning pitcher Manny Parra was the beneficiary of Milwaukee's offensive outburst. Parra (3-5) wasn't paticularly sharp, allowing five runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Jason LaRue went 3-for-3 with a homer and Albert Pujols hit his 20th home run of the season for the Cardinals.