Brewers 6, Cardinals 3: Rickie Weeks and Aramis Ramirez homered and Mike Fiers pitched five solid innings as surging Milwaukee won its second straight against host St. Louis.

Fiers (9-7) rebounded from a shaky start against Miami by allowing one run with five strikeouts. John Axford worked around a one-out walk in the ninth for his 27th save.

The Brewers have gone 15-4 over their last 19 contests to move five games behind the Cardinals in the race for the second wild-card spot. St. Louis, which has lost eight of its last 11 games, saw its lead for the second wild-card spot cut to one half-game over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Milwaukee took an early lead when Jake Westbrook (13-11) allowed two runs in the second after the first three batters reached base. Westbrook exited after giving up three runs over five frames.

The Cardinals cut into the lead on Daniel Descalso’s RBI single in the second before Milwaukee answered with a run in the fourth and another in the seventh on Weeks’ leadoff homer off Trevor Rosenthal.

St. Louis pulled with two runs in the seventh when Bryan Anderson led off with a single and scored on Adron Chambers’ triple into the right-center gap off Francisco Rodriguez.

The Cardinals had runners on second and third with no outs in the eighth, but they managed only one run after pinch hitter Carlos Beltran popped out to end the inning. Milwaukee added to its lead in the ninth on Ramirez’s 22nd home run and Carlos Gomez’s RBI single.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Cardinals RF Matt Carpenter left the game in the bottom of the third inning with small lacerations in both hands and is expected to return for the series finale. … Anderson recorded his first career stolen base in the seventh. … The Brewers won despite going 4-for-15 with runners in scoring position and stranding 12 runners. … Ramirez’s homer ended Fernando Salas’ streak of 15 consecutive scoreless appearances covering 13 innings. ...Ramirez, Ryan Braun and Jonathan Lucroy had three hits apiece for the Brewers.