ST. LOUIS -- Milwaukee Brewers rookie Tyler Thornburg found himself in the middle of a pennant race Thursday night, even though it was only in a spoiler role. "You always want to try and make it as tough for those teams who have something to play for," he said. Thornburg did just that, tossing six solid innings to lead the Brewers over St. Louis 5-3. Sean Halton homered for Milwaukee, which snapped the Cardinals five-game winning streak. St. Louis fell into a tie with Pittsburgh for the top spot in the NL Central. Both teams are 85-61 with 16 games remaining. The idle Cincinnati Reds are 2 1/2 back. Milwaukee broke a three-game losing streak against St. Louis and beat the Cardinals for only the fourth time in 16 meetings this season. "Its important to beat these guys. Theyve been taking it to us pretty good," manager Ron Roenicke said. "We played a good game today. There were a lot of good things that happened." The Cardinals are 5-1 on their nine-game homestand. Thornburg (2-1), making his eighth career start, gave up two runs and three hits. He spent most of the season with Triple-A Nashville, going 0-9 with a 5.79 ERA in 15 starts. Thornburg struck out six and walked two. He has allowed two runs or fewer and gone six innings in all five major league starts this season. Jim Henderson earned his 25th save in 29 opportunities. "I thought I threw the ball pretty well," Thornburg said. "I was locating my fastball pretty well. Everything felt good." St. Louis outfielder Carlos Beltran was impressed with the right-hander. "The first couple of at-bats youre kind of like wondering, watching what hes trying to do," he said. "We just couldnt do anything against him." Halton, who had three RBIs, hit a two-run homer off Joe Kelly (8-4) in the fourth to put the Brewers up 4-0. Halton also had a run-scoring single in the second. The round-tripper was the biggest hit of the season for Halton, a rookie starting his 15th game. "This is as good as it gets for a guy like me," he said. "Getting called up in September, thats all you can ask for is to be a factor." Like Thornburg, Halton loves the spoiler role. "Were in a (pennant) race all right, a race to knock someone else out," he said. The Brewers jumped on Kelly, who allowed four runs, three earned, on seven hits in five innings. He won his previous five starts, and the Cardinals had won his last eight. "My stuff felt good, I just missed on a couple pitches," Kelly said. "They didnt hit the ball extremely hard. I just left some pitches up." Matt Adams hit a two-out solo homer in the ninth, his 13th of the season. The Brewers scored single runs in each of the first two innings. Scooter Gennett and Jonathan Lucroy singled in the first, and Gennett came around on a groundout by Aramis Ramirez. The Cardinals pulled to 4-2 in the fourth on a run-scoring double by Matt Holliday and a sacrifice fly by David Freese. They also put two on with one out in the sixth, but Thornburg retired Beltran and Freese to end the threat. "We just had a lot of things not really going the way we wanted them to," St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. "We hit a few balls hard, but (Thornburg) threw a good game against us." Norichika Aoki tripled in Yuniesky Betancourt in the ninth. NOTES: All three games in the series lasted 3 hours, 2 minutes. ... St. Louis RHP Trevor Rosenthal missed the game. His wife, Lindsey, was in labour awaiting their first child. ... Cardinals C Yadier Molina missed his second successive game due to an illness to his mother, Gladys. General manager John Mozeliak said Molina could be back Friday. ... St. Louis 1B Allen Craig is making progress with his injured left foot. "Were still optimistic hell play again," Mozeliak said. "Hes feeling a lot better. Its one of those things where youre just going to have to let some time progress." Craig sustained a left mid-foot strain on Sept. 4. ... The Brewers begin a 10-game homestand Friday against Cincinnati. Kyle Lohse (9-9, 3.59 ERA) will face Reds RHP Mat Latos (14-5, 3.02) in the opener of a three-game series. ... St. Louis ends its homestand with three games against Seattle beginning Friday. Cardinals RHP Adam Wainwright (16-9, 3.03) faces Hisashi Iwakuma (12-6, 2.97). nfl jerseys china . Is there a chance the streak could end in the 2011-12 campaign? Goaltender Jimmy Howard was terrible last year ranking 33rd in the league in goals-against average at 2. wholesale jerseys . The Real Madrid midfielder on Wednesday became the first athlete to amass 10 million followers on the social networking site, joining an elite group which previously contained mostly musicians. http://www.cheapchinajerseynfl.us.co... . Second-seeded Sloane Stephens of the United States made lighter work of her day as she beat 2009 champion and Swiss wild card Timea Bacsinszky 6-3, 6-3. 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Uptons one-out single. Allen drew a bases-loaded walk off the bench in Wednesday nights 3-2 win over Los Angeles in his first Tampa Bay plate appearance. "To his credit, he has not played in a while," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "This guy has not had many swings over the last couple weeks, and that speaks a lot to his makeup that weve heard about." Brandon Gomes (1-0) worked a 1-2-3 ninth, helping the Rays win their fifth straight. "Those guys over there are going to make you earn every inch," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of the Rays. Albert Pujols went 1 for 4, ending his hitless streak at a career-worst 21 at-bats when he rolled a grounder up the middle to beat a three-man defensive shift. Pujols was thrown out attempting to stretch the single into a double. With 445 home runs, Pujols has not gone deep in 19 games and 76 at-bats this season. Hes homerless in 105 regular-season at-bats since Sept. 22, tying his longest drought: April 23-May 23 last year. The three-time NL MVP is hitting .224 with a .280 on-base percentage after leaving St. Louis to sign a $240 million, 10-year contract with the Angels. Allen hit .200 with six homers and 18 RBIs in 52 games last season with Oakland and Arizona. It was his first homer since Aug. 27 offf Bostons Jon Lester.dddddddddddd. "He came up with a big swing on a guy throwing 97 (mph)," the Angels Torii Hunter said. Jerome Williams pitched seven solid innings and Mark Trumbo homered and had two RBIs for the Angels, who have lost seven of nine. "When it rains, it pours," Hunter said. "Right now its pouring down." Williams allowed two runs and five hits. Trumbo hit his third homer this season in the fifth, and added an RBI double one inning later. Ben Zobrist and Matt Joyce drove in the other Rays runs. Matt Moore gave up three runs and five hits in 5 2-3 innings. The Angels had just one runner -- on Vernon Wells second-inning walk -- through four against Moore. Trumbo opened the fifth with a homer that tied it at 1. After Trumbos two-out, run-scoring double, he scored on Wells infield single for a 3-1 lead in the sixth. Tampa Bay closed to 3-2 when Joyce triple in a run in the sixth. Desmond Jennings had a leadoff single in the first and scored for a 1-0 lead when Zobrist doubled. Jennings has a career-best eight-game hitting streak. "Hard-fought game, one bad pitch," Walden said. Notes: Allen got the home-run ball back and will give it to his mother. ... This was just Waldens second save opportunity this season. ... Williams only other start against Tampa Bay came on June 8, 2004, while with San Francisco. He picked up the win after allowing one run over seven innings. ... Los Angeles RHP Jered Weaver (3-0), who is 12-0 with a 1.84 ERA in 14 starts before May 1 since 2010, will go against Cleveland RHP Justin Masterson (0-2) on Friday night. ... Rays RHP James Shields and Texas LHP Matt Harrison, both 3-0 this season, are Friday nights scheduled starters. cheap jerseys cheap jerseys ' ' '