ST. LOUIS — As if the Cardinals needed a reminder on how wide the gap has grown between them and the Milwaukee Brewers, a week’s worth of it finally, mercifully came to an end Thursday.

In a surgical dismantling of the Cardinals to complete a five-game visit, the Brewers peppered Andre Pallante with singles early, got timely power in the middle and strolled away from Busch Stadium with an 8-4 victory. The Cardinals tightened the game briefly with All-Star outfielder Jordan Walker catapulted a three-run homer into Big Mac Land.

That narrowed the game down to two runs.

The game, like the series, never felt that close.

The Brewers won four of the five games in the mega-series, and that included a doubleheader sweep on Tuesday. The National League Central’s power team opened up a lead in the standings of more than 10 games against the Cardinals.

The Cardinals, their pitching on fumes and their hold on a wild-card spot following, have lost five of six as they reach the final weekend before the All-Star break.

The Brewers riddled starter Andre Pallante (10-6) with eight hits in five innings and opened a 6-0 lead by the end of the third inning. Jake Bauers’ doubled the lead with a three-run homer, and just as Walker muscled the Cardinals back into the game, Brice Turang’s solo homer to start the seventh quelled any of the Cardinals’ momentum. Milwaukee was businesslike in its ability to stay ahead and, at times, overwhelm the Cardinals.

Right-hander Logan Henderson pitched 5 1/3 innings and held the Cardinals to three runs. Lars Nootbaar tagged him with an RBI single, and Walker drove home two of the runs Henderson left behind for the bullpen handle. Milwaukee had a five-run lead when Henderson (3-1) left his start.

BABIP trouble brews for Pallante

A dozen batters into the game, and the Brewers put 12 balls in play and got six singles.

That was a .500 batting average on balls in play, or BABIP.

Milwaukee got a flare to left for a single, they got a hard ground ball to right for a single, they got a ground ball up the middle for an RBI single. In the second inning, two singles to center and a single to right conspired with a wild pitch to produce a 2-0 lead before Pallante could get a ground-ball double play. One of the hardest hit balls of the first few innings against Pallante was actually an out, but the Brewers got plenty of batted balls through the defense to put together a six-run lead by the end of the third.

The biggest dent against Pallante was Bauer’s three-run homer that soared over the defense in the third inning, but the setup was the same as the previous rallies.

A day early at Busch, the singles sure did mingle.

Pallante’s difficulty with the Brewers was not isolated to his five innings against them Thursday. Milwaukee left the game batting better than .300 against the right-hander as a team in his career. In 17 appearances (five starts) against the division rivals, he’s yet to win a game. He entered Thursday’s game with a 5.45 ERA vs. the Brewers and saw it inch up to 6.07.

He allowed six runs on eight hits through five innings.

He faced one batter in the sixth inning and allowed an infield single.

Seven of the eight hits he allowed were singles.

Derby preview?

On the day he was announced as a participant in the Home Run Derby, Walker showed why.

With a 406-foot bolt for his 22nd home run of the season, Walker momentarily lifted the Cardinals back into the game by planting the first baseball of the season from a Cardinal in Big Mac Land. Walker tagged a homer that pinballed off a seat in the third deck that looms over left field and has carried the name “Big Mac Land” longer than Busch III has been the Cardinals’ home.

The Cardinals trailed by five runs when they were able to chase Henderson from the game three batters into the sixth.

Henderson helped.

He plunked JJ Wetherholt with a pitch to spark the rally, and he walked Alec Burleson to make the decision for the Brewers. They called on right-handed reliever Chad Patrick to enter and face Walker.

The major league leader in RBIs with 70 entering Thursday, Walker had batted twice with runners in scoring position already in the game. Henderson struck him out looking to end the first inning, and he grounded out in the fourth after Burleson’s double. Walker jumped the sixth pitch he saw from Patrick. It was also the fifth cut fastball of the at-bat.

Walker’s three-run shot yanked the Cardinals up to a two-run deficit.

It also engaged the “Tarps Off” section and the remaining crowd of 27,028 that wasn’t already rooting for the Brewers. Aching for runs against Henderson, Walker’s first home run as a derby participant put the Cardinals within reach, briefly.

In his previous two seasons, Walker hit a combined 11 home runs in 527 at-bats. He has doubled that many in his first 346 at-bats of this season.

Make it 50 in a row

The situation was definitely stacked against Cardinals catcher Ivan Herrera in the third inning, and still the result was a continuation of the trend.

With runners at the corners and Pallante on the mound, Milwaukee’s Brice Turang bolted from first and successfully stole second base. He was the 50th consecutive opponent to successfully steal a base against Herrera. That streak dates back two seasons when he caught Juan Soto trying to steal a base. Soto was with the Yankees at the time and not yet one of the highest-paid professional athletes on the planet.

Opponents are 26 for 26 on steal attempts against Herrera this season.

The Cardinals’ catcher/designated hitter had surgery this past offseason to remove loose bodies in his right elbow and improve how he felt throwing. The Cardinals worked with him to strength his arm and “repattern” — their term — his throwing motion. Herrera has improved some with more zip and less fade to his throws, but the steals have continued.

The circumstance of Thursday’s steal was tricky.

The Brewers had a runner at third who could bolt for home if Herrera bit on Turang going to second. Plus, Pallante has one of the slower delivery times to the plate because of his delivery. Those two things conspired to limit the time Herrera even had to throw out Turang and it would have been a remarkable play to avoid the 50th.

Gastelum shows off change-up

To say that Jackson Chourio got a glimpse of the wicked change-up that brought Luis Gastelum to the majors would presume that he saw it the entire way to the mitt.

His swing suggests otherwise.

While the Cardinals’ right-hander allowed the home run that answered the Cardinals’ sixth-inning rally, Gastelum also got a chance to showcase one of the best off-speed pitches in the organization. And Chourio took an awkward, pinwheel swing that is common against the pitch as it appears to float toward the strike zone — and then vanish below it.

Gastelum entered in the sixth inning to relief Pallante, and he retired three of the four batters he faced to keep the Brewers from scoring.

He struck out left-handed batter Garrett Mitchell for his first big league K.

But it was the change-up against Chourio that flashed what’s possible from the right-handed rookie. Gastelum started Chourio with an 82-mph sweeper that was taken for a called strike. The next pitch was the change-up that Chourio swung wildly over. Gastelum then missed up with an elevated, 93-mph fastball before working Chourio down with a sinker for the groundout that ended the inning.

Gastelum allowed a solo homer to lead off the seventh.

The homer came on a fastball after three consecutive change-ups to Turang.

In the first 1 2/3 innings of his big league career over the past two games, Gastelum has allowed one run on three hits, and he’s struck out one. He threw seven change-ups on Thursday night. The Brewers, in total, took three swings at it. All three missed.

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