Cardinals 11, Brewers 5
Three Cardinals homered in a four-run third inning — including David Freese, who went 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs — as St. Louis spoiled Milwaukee’s home opener.
Jaime Garcia (1-0) allowed two runs in six innings for the Cardinals, who reached base 12 times against Milwaukee starter Yovani Gallardo (0-1) before chasing him from the game with two outs in the fourth, leading 6-2.
Carlos Beltran, Matt Holliday and Yadier Molina each hit home runs off Gallardo, who fell to 1-8 in 12 career starts against the Cardinals.
After giving up a pair of first-inning runs, Garcia settled down and retired eight of the next nine Milwaukee batters. The left-hander, who went 13-7 with a 3.56 ERA in 2011, gave up five hits, walked two and struck out three.
St. Louis scored a run in the sixth and seventh before plating three more in the ninth after Matt Carpenter and Rafael Furcal hit consecutive run-scoring doubles. Furcal went 3-for-5 for the Cardinals, who finished with 16 hits.
George Kottaras hit a three-run home run off Kyle McClellan in the ninth, and Aramis Ramirez went 0-4 with an RBI in his Brewers debut. Carlos Gomez added two hits and an RBI triple for Milwaukee, which lost its home opener for the third straight year.
Gallardo had career highs in wins (17), strikeouts (207) and ERA (3.52) last year, but struggled in April, posting a 5.70 ERA. He’s allowed six or more runs in three of his last four April starts.
The Cardinals improved to 2-0 under new manager Mike Matheny.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Milwaukee went an MLB-best 57-24 at Miller Park in 2011 … The Cardinals defeated the Brewers 4-2 in the NL Championship Series last year before winning the World Series … Beltran and Holliday hit back-to-back home runs on consecutive pitches in the third inning … Matheny, who made his MLB debut with the Brewers in 1994, received applause prior to the game when his name was announced … Miller Park attendance was 46,086, second-highest behind only Sept. 6, 2003, against the Cubs.