ST. LOUIS -- One bad inning kept Jimmy Nelson winless in his career against the St. Louis Cardinals.Nelson (7-14) allowed five hits in six innings and retired the Cardinals in order four times Friday night but he gave up two two-run homers in the third that made the difference in the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 loss.Nelson fell to 0-7 in eight career starts against St. Louis.Its just a crazy game and stuff happens, Nelson said. Theres never really just one answer in this game to anything. You dont want to think theres something wrong and start over-analyzing stuff so you just try to keep it simple.No, Brewers manager Craig Counsell answered pointedly when asked if Nelsons woes against St. Louis are weighing on the 27-year-old right-hander.Milwaukee led 3-0 and Nelson had retired the first eight batters when Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez started a two-out rally with a single up the middle. Matt Carpenter followed with his 19th home run, Kolten Wong walked and Stephen Piscotty gave St. Louis the lead and completed the nights scoring by hitting his 21st homer into the bullpen in right field.The two guys that can really hurt him, hurt him, Counsell said. He fell behind Carpenter 3-0, which is trouble. Make mistakes to those guys and thats whats going to happen.Scooter Gennett hit a two-run homer, his 11th, to give the Brewers a 3-0 lead in the top of the third. Milwaukee scored an unearned run in the first when Gennett walked, Chris Carter was hit by a pitch and Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit a hard one-hopper that shortstop Jedd Gyorko did not handle.The Brewers collected nine hits and had two batters hit in seven innings against Martinez (14-7) but they hit into three double plays. Martinez improved to 3-0 in four starts against the Brewers this season.We got a lot of hits but we werent in a lot of situations to really score some runs, Gennett said. We got three runs on him early but werent able to make anything happen later.The Brewers lost for only the second time in their past nine games and had a five-game road winning streak end.Weve been playing some good ball as of late, Gennett said a night after the Brewers opened the series with a 12-5 rout. Maybe we take three out of four.The win improved the Cardinals, the majors only winning team with a losing record at home, to 31-38 at Busch Stadium and kept them a half-game behind the New York Mets in the NL wild-card race.Seung-Hwan Oh worked around a leadoff walk in the ninth for his 17th save in 20 chances. Pinch-hitter Ryan Braun grounded into a force at second for the final out.DOUBLING UPMartinez induced double-play grounders in the second and third innings to increase his NL-leading total to 32, two shy of the Cardinals team record set by John Denny in 1978. Wong backhanded a grounder up the middle and scooped the ball from his glove to Gyorko to start the third-inning double play. Thats one of the best plays weve seen here, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. The Brewers popped out into a double play in the fourth.TRAINERS ROOMCardinals: SS Aledmys Diaz (right thumb) went 2 for 4 for Double-A Springfield in a rehab start Friday night. ... RHP Trevor Rosenthal (shoulder inflammation) will throw to hitters Saturday for the first time since he went on the DL on July 26.UP NEXTBrewers: RHP Chase Anderson (8-11, 4.73) has allowed three earned runs in 10 1/3 innings in two starts at Busch Stadium this season.Cardinals: RHP Adam Wainwright (10-8, 4.61) has allowed one home run at home this season but has lost his past two home starts. Oscar Klefbom Jersey . "I dont know that were close," said general manager Alex Anthopoulos. "I just think, right now, the acquisition cost just doesnt work for us right now. 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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- For a pair of one-loss teams, there couldnt be much more at stake when No. 9 Nebraska clashes with No. 6 Ohio State on Saturday night.Wisconsin beat the Cornhuskers (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) in overtime last week, spoiling their perfect record, dropping them in the AP Top 25 poll and making it much harder for them to accomplish their postseason goals.Ohio State was upset by unranked Penn State two weeks ago. The Buckeyes continue to struggle in the vertical passing game and just squeaked by unranked Northwestern last week at home.The loser of Saturdays primetime game at Ohio Stadium will have its national playoff hopes all but dashed in front of a huge TV audience, and be saddled with a much more winding route to the conference crown.It will be a big chore for us, Nebraska coach Mike Riley said. We have to play a great, complete ballgame, and have to be ready to take advantage of any opportunities presented to us as we go.Nebraska wide receiver Jordan Westerkamp said the matchup has all the makings of a statement game for the Cornhuskers.The mood is good, he said. We are excited for this week -- huge opportunity for us. We control our own destiny. Guys are still pumped up, theyre jacked to go to Columbus to play a great team at Ohio State.Ohio State guard Billy Price said the team cant wait to play a Saturday game at home after being on the road for three of them this season.Night games here in the `Shoe are special, Price said. Its just one of these historical places, and its an absolutely electric atmosphere. Pretty much the city of Columbus shuts down, and everybodys worried about the Buckeyes game.Some other things to consider when Nebraska visits Ohio State:BUCKEYES ARE VULNERABLEWesterkamp said it gives Nebraska players extra confidence knowing that Ohio State was upset by Penn State and struggled until the last drive before beating Northwestern. But the Buckeyes, he said, must be respected. Theyre a different kind of animal,, Westerkamp said.dddddddddddd We know how good they are, but theyre beatable.Riley, in his second year at Nebraska, will be making his first trip to Ohio Stadium. Ive had a lot of respect for what theyve done and obviously their recruiting has been outstanding, he said. Theyve been that team in the league lately thats set the bar, but I think that theres teams rising too, so thats kind of exciting.ARMSTRONG VS. THE TOP 25Nebraska quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr. has struggled while going 0-3 against ranked opponents on the road in his career. Hes a combined 38 for 92 (41.3 percent) with one touchdown and five interceptions in those games. The fourth-year starter is 1-8 against ranked opponents, home and away, hitting 49.7 percent of his passes with 10 TDs and 14 interceptions.TOUGH IN FOURTH QUARTERNebraska will like its chances if its a close game in the fourth quarter. The Huskers have outscored opponents by a nation-best 95 points in the final quarter and were dominant even in their loss at Wisconsin last week, outscoring the Badgers 10-0 to force the extra session and holding the ball for 9:41. The Huskers average 10:05 in possession time in the fourth quarter.RANKINGS? WHAT RANKINGS?Ohio State is No. 6 in the first College Football Playoff rankings, and Nebraska is No. 10. Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said he doesnt really care. Oh, its important, (but) not for us, he said. I wont look at it. Im sure people will tell me about it. But, I mean, its not going to change the way we work.Barrett said the ranking is of little importance right now. I dont care about it too much, being that theres still a lot of football to be played, he said.---AP College Football Writer Eric Olson contributed from Lincoln, Nebraska.More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.orgFollow Mitch Stacy at http://twitter.com/mitchstacy ' ' '