Yadier Molina blasted two homers to power the visiting St. Louis Cardinals past the Milwaukee Brewers 6-3 Tuesday night for their sixth straight victory.

The Cardinals have won 15 of their last 18 games while moving atop the National League Central.

The third-place Brewers lost for the sixth time in nine games to fall 6 1/2 games behind. The second-place Chicago Cubs beat the New York Mets 5-2 Tuesday night to remain three games back.

Molina went 3-for-3 with a walk, a double, two homers and three RBIs. He has seven multi-homer games in his career and four have come against the Brewers.

In the first two games of the series, Molina has hit three homers, scored four runs and driven home six.

Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas (8-13) struck out 10 batters and held the Brewers to one run in six innings to earn the victory. Carlos Martinez got the final five outs for his 16th save.

Hernan Perez nearly hit a game-tying homer in the bottom of the ninth, but Dexter Fowler caught his long fly ball at the right field wall to end the game.

Brewers reliever Matt Albers (5-4), the third of six Milwaukee pitchers, took the loss after allowing three runs in the seventh inning. That negated a nice effort by starter Adrian Houser, who held the Cardinals to one run in five innings.

The Brewers scored first on Orlando Arcia's RBI single in the second inning. Molina tied the game with a solo homer in the fifth.

Molina golfed a two-run homer off the left field foul pole in the seventh. Kolten Wong's RBI double later in the inning made it 4-1.

The Brewers tightened the game on Yasmani Grandal's two-run homer in the eighth inning. But the Cardinals got them back in the ninth with Harrison Bader's RBI double and Wong's RBI single.

The game featured a nine-minute rain delay in the seventh inning even though Miller Park has a retractable roof.

Brewers third baseman Mike Moustakas was unavailable due to a wrist bruise suffered Monday night. Veteran pitcher Shelby Miller used the release clause in his minor league contract with the Brewers to become a free agent.

--Field Level Media