Brent Suter pitched seven strong innings, Manny Pina homered and the Milwaukee Brewers capitalized on a season-high four errors by St. Louis in an 11-3 victory Thursday night.

 

Suter (8-4) retired 12 straight after Matt Carpenter homered on the first pitch of the game.

 

He went a career-high seven innings for the second time this season and third overall. He limited the Cardinals to two runs and two hits with a walk and five strikeouts.

 

Suter is 6-1 with a 3.12 ERA in his last seven starts.

 

The Brewers regained the lead in NL Central, one game ahead of the Chicago Cubs.

 

Carlos Martinez (3-4) struggled in his fourth start since returning from the disabled list (right lat strain). He allowed seven runs - five earned - on eight hits in four innings with two walks, three strikeouts and two wild pitches. The right-hander is 0-2 with an 8.10 ERA since being activated on June 4.

 

Milwaukee went ahead 2-1 in the first and never looked back.

 

Left fielder Marcell Ozuna tracked Jesus Aguilar's towering fly and climbed the wall in anticipation of making a home run-saving catch. The ball hit the padding behind and below Ozuna and bounced away as two runs scored for Milwaukee.

 

Fielding and throwing errors in the third helped the Brewers tack on two unearned runs.

 

Lorenzo Cain reached on Carpenter's fielding error at third base and scored on Travis Shaw's double. Shaw advanced on a wild pitch and then raced home when Martinez lost the grip on the ball as he threw toward the plate and it squirted toward the third base line.

 

The Brewers broke it open in the fourth on a home run by Pina, a run-scoring single by Cain and a sacrifice fly by Shaw.

 

Milwaukee added three unearned runs in the seventh aided by a fielding and throwing error by second baseman Jedd Gyorko.

 

Yadier Molina was hit by a pitch and scored on a double by Yairo Munoz in the fifth. Munoz had a run-scoring base hit in the ninth.

 

Carpenter hit the first pitch from Suter for his 17th leadoff home run and second of the season.

 

 RHP Jack Flaherty (3-2, 2.66 ERA) makes his third career start against the Brewers and second at Miller Park, where he made his major league debut on April 3.