MILWAUKEE — If either team or the sold-out Father’s Day crowd had any expectations of Saturday’s spiciness spilling over into the series finale Sunday, those nearly withered with the downright mildness of the Cardinals' offense.

Not until the ninth inning did the Cardinals’ pulse race enough for there to be a genuine threat to the lead Milwaukee took five innings earlier. Nolan Arenado opened the ninth with a 12-pitch at-bat that ended on a line-drive single and put the potential tying run on base. The Cardinals got that runner into scoring position, and a wild pitch got the Cardinals 90 feet away from a tie.

And then they went cold again.

Unable to sustain much pressure or generate much from a peppering of hits, the Cardinals did not maintain any momentum from Saturday’s emotional victory as they tumbled into a 3-2 loss Sunday to the Brewers at American Family Field.

Brewers closer Trevor Megill struck out three consecutive batters with the tying run in scoring position to secure his 15th save of the season.

Christian Yelich’s home run tied the game in the fourth against Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas. The other two runs the Brewers scored came home on outs.

With six innings and two runs allowed, Mikolas (4-4) authored his fourth quality start in his past six outings.

The Cardinals got an RBI groundout from Willson Contreras, the man in the middle of almost everything Saturday, and a late solo homer from Ivan Herrera. The catcher’s eighth homer of the season came on the first pitch he saw in the eighth and cut the Brewers’ lead down to a run. On Saturday, Contreras sought out a prominent spot in the game — from colliding with a young player to confronting a veteran to spurring his own teammates as they ended a six-game losing streak.

On Sunday, the game kept finding him.

Contreras misplayed a grounder in the bottom of the seventh inning that contributed to the Brewers' rally for a necessary insurance run. After Herrera’s homer, Alec Burleson dropped a double in the right-field corner to bring the game once again around to Contreras. He grounded out with a chance to increase the Cardinals’ lead in the fourth inning. He popped up with a the potential tying run on base in the fifth inning, and in the eighth, he had the best chance yet for the Cardinals to tie the game.

Milwaukee turned to reliever Nick Mears.

Contreras saw three sliders and struck out on four pitches.

Donovan returns, resumes hitting

The Cardinals did not want to wait long before seeing Brendan Donovan back in the batter’s box, and it did not take long for him to show why.

The team’s leader in several offensive categories — including hits and doubles — moved up to the leadoff spot in his return from a toe injury that sidelined him for several days. The Cardinals intend to give outfielder Lars Nootbaar a break from the No. 1 spot over the weekend, and with Masyn Winn also off Sunday, the top of the order was open. Donovan was the fit.

New spot.

Same swing.

Donovan had two singles before the start of the seventh inning to up his average to .315 for the season.

Donovan led off the game, the fourth inning and the sixth inning, and in the fourth, he looped a single that began the Cardinals’ rally. With Herrera at the plate, Donovan broke for second, and that drew infielder Brice Turang toward the base to open up a lane for Herrera’s ground-ball base hit. Donovan’s head start on his break to second allowed him to take third, and that proved essential to the Cardinals' offense.

He scored on Contreras’ groundout for a 1-0 lead.

Mikolas strikes out 7

All of the runs the Brewers got against Mikolas to flip that lead came in the fourth inning.

Otherwise, the veteran right-hander remained in control.

Mikolas struck out a season-high seven batters, and several times, it was a strikeout that got him out of a jam that could have yielded more runs for the Brewers. In the first inning, Mikolas allowed a single and a walk, but he also struck out three batters. He caught Yelich looking at a curveball for the second out, and he lured Rhys Hoskins into a sweep with a 78.7-mph sweeping slider.

In the second, a leadoff double for the Brewers resulted in nothing from the Brewers when Mikolas struck out No. 8 hitter Drew Avans. When Milwaukee did cobble together a rally for a couple of runs against Mikolas, he struck out No. 9 hitter Joey Ortiz to end the inning with a runner at third base.

Mikolas got 10 swings and misses in the game and held the Brewers to two runs on six hits. One of the runs he allowed came on a sacrifice fly.

Yelich lifts Brewers to lead

The only one of the Brewers’ first three runs that did not score on an out was a solo act.

Yelich, the former National League MVP, led off the fourth inning with his 14th homer of the season. That tied the game 1-1, and it would spill into a go-ahead rally for the Brewers. Hoskins’ infield single was followed by a Caleb Durbin’s single to right. They both advanced on a wild pitch from Mikolas so that Hoskins could score on Avans’ sacrifice fly.

The homer for Yelich was his first hit since his two singles Thursday, and it was the first of his three hits Sunday.

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