ST. LOUIS — A Cardinals club that had not secured a one-run win through their first 25 games of the 2025 season had its bullpen seal the Milwaukee Brewers offense just enough to secure a 3-2 win Friday at Busch Stadium.

After Matthew Liberatore delivered six-plus innings and was charged with two runs (one earned), right-handers Kyle Leahy and Phil Maton navigated traffic on the bases in the seventh and eighth innings to give way to closer Ryan Helsley, who secured his fourth save of the season.

The Cardinals (11-15) received RBI hits from Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan and Nolan Gorman to take the opening game of a three-game set against their National League Central division foes.

Gorman opened the scoring in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly. Donovan and Nootbaar tacked on runs in the fifth inning after Brewers starter Chad Patrick was chased from the game following 4 1/3 innings.

Bridging to Helsley

After Liberatore's exit, Leahy and Maton navigated traffic to keep the Brewers to one run in the final three innings.

Working with a runner already on second base when he was called into the game, Leahy loaded the bases with no outs when he allowed a single to Rhys Hoskins and walked Isaac Collins after he as ahead of Collins with an 0-2 count.

To keep the Brewers limited to a run that came on a groundout to second base that allowed Sal Frelick, the lone runner Leahy inherited, to score. Leahy, who entered the divisional matchup with a 1.72 ERA on the season, forced a groundout and flyout to escape the inning.

In the eighth inning, Maton saw traffic on the bases on singles from Jackson Chourio and William Contreras that put runners on first and third base with one out.

Although the ground ball by Frelick didn't result in a double play to finish the inning, it led to a run-saving play from third baseman Nolan Arenado.

Playing at cut of grass, Arenado moved to his left on Frelick's ground ball to field and made an off-balanced throw to nab Chourio out at home.

Maton capped the inning with a strikeout of Hoskins.

Liberatore lifted after six-plus

Liberatore kept a Brewers offense that ranked fifth in the majors at the start of Friday with 5.08 runs per game to three hits through his first six innings of work. The lone run Liberatore allowed up to that point came on a single from Christian Yelich with two outs in the sixth that scored Chourio from second base after he doubled in the at-bat prior.

Before the completion of his sixth inning, the only two batters Liberatore allowed to reach base came on a single from Yelich in the first inning and a single from Rhys Hoskins in the second inning.

The lefty challenged Brewers hitters with a slider-heavy approach to complement a fastball that was thrown 22 times and averaged 94.4 mph. The approach helped Liberatore retire 10 hitters via groundouts and two on flyouts as he shrunk his ERA from 3.60 to 3.19 through 31 innings.

He limited the Brewers to no walks. Through five starts, Liberatore has kept opposing lineups to two walks and struck out 24.

At 85 pitches following his sixth inning of work, Liberatore remained in the game to begin the seventh inning with the left-handed hitting Frelick set to lead off the frame. Liberatore induced a pop-up into foul territory on the second pitch of the at-bat against Frelick, but that was dropped by third baseman Arenado. Two pitches later, Frelick doubled on a sinking line drive to left field that a diving Nootbaar could not snag.

The double from Frelick signaled the end of Liberatore’s night.

Offensive breakthrough

Held to two hits and a walk by Patrick through three innings, a Cardinals combination of working count and an early attack led to the game’s first run in the fourth inning.

Donovan began the frame by reaching base with a walk after seeing six pitches — none of which he swung at. He advanced to third base when Arenado, who worked a 1-2 count full, singled to shallow left field on the seventh pitch of his at-bat, giving the Cardinals their second runner in scoring position.

After Donovan and Arenado forced Patrick to throw a combined 13 pitches to begin his fourth inning of work, Gorman swung at the first pitch he saw and produced a fly ball deep enough for Donovan to tag up from third base and beat the throw from Chourio as he slid head-first into home plate.

The momentum the Cardinals' bats built in the fifth inning carried over into the sixth.

Masyn Winn singled to open the inning, leading the Brewers to replace Patrick with left-hander Tyler Alexander, and Nootbaar due next to hit. Nootbaar welcomed Alexander by lining a single to right field on a 1-1 cutter thrown over the middle of the strike zone to plate Winn and begin a string of hits followed by a double from Willson Contreras that sailed over right fielder Chourio’s head and an RBI single from Donovan that plated Nootbaar, but led to Contreras being thrown out at home plate by left fielder Collins.

Testing Contreras’ arm

Entering Friday’s series opener, Brewers All-Star catcher Contreras, the younger brother of Willson, had thrown out an MLB-leading eight base stealers and held a 47.1% caught stealing rate.

When tested by two of the Cardinals’ young speedsters, he was 0 for 2 in thwarting their steal attempts.

Victor Scott II was the first of the two Cardinals to steal a base against Contreras when he swiped second base in the third inning. Scott, who singled to reach base, nabbed his ninth steal of the season in the process. The successful try improved Scott to 9 for 9 in steal attempts to begin the season.

An inning later, Winn stole off Contreras following his single to give the Cardinals' shortstop his first stolen base.

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