MILWAUKEE -- The American Family Field crowd hushed ever so slightly as Rhys Hoskins’ deep fly ball neared the center field wall. Cardinals outfielder Michael Siani continued tracking the drive as he ran past the warning track and then leaped, looking to make a play.

“I didn't think it had enough to get out,” Hoskins said.

But once the ball flew over the wall and past Siani’s outstretched glove, grazing it along the way, it was time to party.

Hoskins’ three-run homer in the seventh inning lifted the Brewers to a 5-3 win over the Cardinals on Saturday, Milwaukee’s eighth consecutive win over division-rival St. Louis and 11th in their last 12 matchups. The eight-game win streak is the longest from either team in their history of playing each other.

Hoskins fell 0-2 in the count to Cardinals reliever Andrew Kittredge with two outs and William Contreras and Jake Bauers on the corners. The Brewers slugger then took a slider and four-seam fastball off the outside corner and a sinker inside to run the count full.

Kittredge came back with a slider at the knees, and Hoskins went down to get it. He sent it a Statcast-projected 407 feet to dead-center field for the go-ahead blast -- his ninth home run this season.

Said Kittredge: “I’ll take that pitch 3-2 every time, but he’s a good hitter and he put a good swing on it. Now, the pitches leading up to it, really when you go back to even the Contreras at-bat, it’s the same thing -- I get ahead and I don’t put them away. The misses are too big. And [Hoskins] had some easy takes to get it back to 3-2.”

“I knew I got some good barrel to it,” Hoskins said. “With the way that some of those balls have been going, and just the way he was tracking it, I thought he was going to get some glove on it. Obviously he did.”

But not enough.

For as long as it perhaps felt for Brewers fans waiting to see if Hoskins’ homer -- which had a 5.4-second hang time -- would get out, the wait was longer for Brewers starter Freddy Peralta.

Peralta was back inside the clubhouse doing his post-outing routine after throwing his fourth quality start of the season. The TVs inside are delayed compared to what’s happening on the field, so he knew something good was happening for the Brewers, based on the crowd noise, but he wasn’t sure what.

“All the times that I’m waiting for a big moment, when we need something, I make everybody [inside] stay quiet,” said Peralta, who allowed three runs and eight hits in six innings, striking out eight with one walk. “… It sounds different down here. … And then I knew something was going on.”

The home run marked Hoskins’ second quality at-bat in as many innings during a Brewers rally. He worked a walk in a nine-pitch plate appearance against Cardinals starter Kyle Gibson in the sixth, fouling off three straight 3-2 offerings before taking a sinker high for the free pass. It loaded the bases to chase Gibson, and the Brewers scored two batters later on a Gary Sánchez hit-by-pitch that cut the deficit to 3-2.

Hoskins has been a key part of the Brewers’ lineup as a formidable bat in the middle of the order with a professional approach. Just as important has been his veteran presence on a team that’s neck-and-neck with Cleveland for the youngest position player group by average age in the Major Leagues.

“He's been huge for us this year,” manager Pat Murphy said of the 31-year-old Hoskins. “The type of person he is and how he is as a leader in that clubhouse is even better. It’s really special, man. You’re pulling for guys like that to do it.”

Hoskins missed the entire 2023 season after tearing his left ACL in Spring Training and undergoing surgery. He watched from the sidelines as his old team in the Phillies made a run to the NLCS, where they lost to the Diamondbacks in seven games.

Now that he’s back on the field, he savors moments such as Saturday’s.

“Those are the types of moments that you kind of picture as a kid, right?” Hoskins said. “You got a chance to either tie or win a game, late in the game. Just being where your feet are, I think, is key there.

“I watched a lot of those moments last year, so just to be right back in those is a ton of fun, but something that I'll never really take for granted.”