ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jack Flaherty got an extra day of rest and a chance to pitch against Milwaukee, and took advantage of both.

Kolten Wong and Marcell Ozuna drove in two runs apiece, Flaherty pitched six shutout innings and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Brewers 5-2 on Friday night.

The Cardinals won for the ninth time in 10 games and pulled within a half-game of the Brewers for the National League’s second wild-card spot.

Milwaukee has dropped three of four.

Flaherty (7-6) gave up three hits, walked three and struck out seven. The Brewers had only two runners reach second base against the rookie, who has allowed two earned runs in his past 19 innings pitched.

Friday marked his third start against Milwaukee this year and fourth in his young career. In 18 innings this season, he’s allowed two earned runs in 18 innings and struck out 29.

Bud Norris earned his 24th save in 28 opportunities.

Freddy Peralta (5-4) went six innings, giving up three earned runs. He allowed three hits, walked three, and struck out five. It was his third loss in his last four decisions.

Wong made a nifty play to start the eighth by charging a hopper that bounded over pitcher Jordan Hick’s head. Wong snagged the ball in his glove and made a hard sidearm throw to get Keon Broxton at first. That turned out to be important because the Brewers scored twice that inning and cut the lead to 3-2.

He capped his night with a two-run double in the eighth to pad the Cardinals’ lead to 5-2.

Jedd Gyorko hit his 10th home run of the season to open the fourth. The shot to left field gave the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.

St. Louis took an early lead after Ozuna followed Yadier Molina’s single and a double from Jose Martinez with a hard grounder up the middle.

The Brewers threatened a comeback in the eighth. They loaded the bases against Hicks, and Jesus Aguilar hit a two-run single to pull the score to 3-2 with one out. But Travis Shaw fouled out to left field and Jonathan Schoop’s flair to shallow center field was caught by shortstop Paul DeJong.

UP NEXT

Braves: LHP Wade Miley (2-1, 2.23) looks for his first win since he went seven innings July 21 in a 1-0 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was his longest outing of the season.

Cardinals: RHP Miles Mikolas (12-3, 2.85) has won five consecutive games. He went seven innings in each of his last three starts and the Cardinals have lost just one of the past eight games in which he started.