Guerra, who was called up late Tuesday night from Triple-A Colorado Springs, gave up just four hits and a run with two walks and four strikeouts. Three relievers obtained the final 11 outs, with Matt Albers pitching the final two-thirds of an inning to garner his first save.

Adam Wainwright (0-2) absorbed the loss despite turning in a quality start. Wainwright pitched seven innings, permitting eight hits and three runs with no walks and four whiffs.

Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina served his one-game suspension, stemming from Sunday's incident in which he erupted after Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo referred to him by a profane term while arguing with home plate umpire Tim Timmons.

Perez opened the scoring in the top of the second, ambushing a first-pitch fastball right down the middle and clouting it 426 feet into the seats in left-center for his first homer.

Thames made it 2-0 in the third with his fifth homer of the year, lofting a 1-2 sinker 364 feet to right. The ball struck the tip of right fielder Harrison Bader's glove as he leaped to make the catch and then disappeared behind the wall.

Milwaukee (7-6) plated the eventual winning run in the fifth. Orlando Arcia singled and Jett Bandy doubled him to third. After Guerra looked at a third strike, Jonathan Villar grounded out to first and Arcia scored.

The Cardinals (5-7) got on the board in the sixth when Greg Garcia doubled, moved to third on Tommy Pham's flyout to deep center and then scored on Matt Carpenter's groundout to first.

Pham led off the ninth with a homer to left-center that was originally ruled in play but overturned upon review. It is his second homer of the year. One-out singles by Marcell Ozuna and Jose Martinez put the winning runs on base.

But Albers wriggled out of trouble when he got Kolten Wong to foul out and fanned pinch hitter Dexter Fowler.

--Field Level Media