Rhys Hoskins, Jake Bauers and Joey Ortiz each homered to cool Sonny Gray as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the slumping St. Louis Cardinals 7-1 on Thursday night.

It was the fifth straight loss for the Cardinals, who opened a four-game series with the NL Central-leading Brewers. Milwaukee has won its last six against St. Louis, a streak that began last season.

Milwaukee's William Contreras and Christian Yelich each went 3 of 4. Jared Koenig (4-1) pitched two scoreless innings of relief and worked his way out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fifth.

Gray (4-2) has been one of the last-place Cardinals’ few bright spots since signing a three-year, $75 million contract in the offseason, but the 2023 AL Cy Young Award runner-up couldn’t stop St. Louis’ slide.

Through his first five starts, Gray allowed a total of six runs, and only three were earned. His 0.89 ERA was the lowest since 1910 by any Cardinals pitcher in his first five appearances with the organization.

The Brewers scored six runs off Gray on Thursday during his five-inning stint. Gray had given up just one homer all year before the Brewers went deep against him three times.

The Cardinals wasted a couple of chances to get back into the game.

St. Louis brought the tying run to the plate with no outs in the fourth while trailing 4-1, but Dylan Carlson grounded into a double play and Masyn Winn struck out. The Cardinals then loaded the bases off Tobias Myers to start the fifth, but Koenig came out of the bullpen and got the next three outs without letting anyone score.

LHP Robert Gasser is expected to make his major league debut for the Brewers on Friday. RHP Lance Lynn (1-0, 3.28) is pitching for the Cardinals.