St. Louis Cardinals Matt Adams watchs his two run home run leave the park in the  eighth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on September 11, 2013.   UPI/Bill Greenblatt

Matt Adams watchs his two run home run leave the park in the eighth inning. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

Matt Adams had a two-run homer and the Cardinals broke open the game with four runs in the eighth inning to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-1 on Wednesday night. The Cards have now won five straight and keep their one-game lead over Pittsburgh and a three-game advantage on Cincinnati in the NL Central. The Pirates finished a three-game sweep at Texas and the Reds beat the Chicago Cubs in afternoon games.

Lance Lynn put together one of his better outings in quite a while. Lynn went six innings and gave up an unearned run on five hits. Lynn also struck out ten. Lynn lost his previous five decisions. He last win came Aug. 4.

The Cardinals roughed up Brandon Kintzler. He gave up three runs on two hits and a walk. He allowed a game-tying hit in the seventh before loading the bases with one out in the eighth.

Carlos Beltran’s sacrifice fly off Michael Gonzalez scored Matt Carpenter to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead. An error by catcher Jonathan Lucroy allowed Jon Jay to score and Adams followed with his 12th homer of the season.