MILWAUKEE (AP) — Neither Jesus Aguilar nor Bud Norris wanted to let their team down.

Aguilar succeeded twice.

Aguilar homered to break up rookie Jack Flaherty’s no-hit bid in the seventh inning, then homered again in the ninth to lift the Milwaukee Brewers over the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 on Friday night.

Both teams got just three hits. The benches and bullpens briefly cleared in the eighth after Eric Sogard slid into St. Louis shortstop Yairo Munoz, who caught a wide throw on a bunt play in the eighth.

Norris (3-2) started the ninth for the Cardinals by striking out Travis Shaw. But, Aguilar followed with an opposite-field drive to right for his 16th home run.

It was another tough loss for the Cardinals, who have lost nine of the last 12.

Corey Knebel (1-0) pitched the ninth for the NL Central leaders.

With one out in the seventh, Aguilar drove an 83 mph slider from Flaherty into the Brewers’ bullpen in left, where reliever Jeremy Jeffress caught the ball on the fly. A woman who was knitting — it appeared to be crochet, actually — in the front row behind home plate barely flinched as Aguilar connected.

Brewers starter Junior Guerra allowed one run and three hits with four walks and seven strikeouts in five-plus innings.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: RHP Miles Mikolas (7-2, 2.69 ERA) makes his third start against the Brewers this season. He won 8-4 in his Cardinals debut on April 2.

Brewers: RHP Chase Anderson (5-6, 4.54 ERA) makes his second start this season against the Cardinals. He is 2-2 with a 3.19 ERA in 10 career outings, including a no-decision April 3 at Miller Park.