Milwaukee drops season-high fourth straight contest
By Adam McCalvy / MLB.com
PHILADELPHIA -- The Brewers avoided a rainout, then a no-hitter.
They couldn't avoid another loss.
Their first 18 batters went down in order Wednesday against Phillies left-hander Cole Hamels, who settled for eight solid innings and a 6-2 win over the Brewers at Citizens Bank Park in front of 42,713 fans who were hoping to see history. The Brewers still have a healthy lead in the National League Central, but have lost a season-high four straight games and five of six on a road trip gone sour.
The mini-slump left manager Ned Yost mulling some changes to his lineup. The Brewers have been out-hit 19-7 over the last two games and only one of their five runs scored without the benefit of a home run.
"Nothing earth-shaking," Yost said. "Rickie [Weeks] might get a day off [Thursday] and Billy [Hall] might get a day off. We'll see. ... They've been through this a little bit before. They've been through losing streaks, but not when the expectations are there and they've accomplished what they've accomplished. You get a little tense and go through a losing streak, and you have to keep your head above water."
Weeks broke up Hamels' (6-1) perfect game when he drew a seven-pitch walk leading off the seventh inning. Shortstop J.J. Hardy then dashed the no-hitter and shutout bid when he yanked a 2-and-1 pitch for a two-run home run, his National League-best 13th homer this season.
"I thought to myself, 'Even as well as he's throwing the ball, you can't let yourself get defensive,'" said Hardy, the first shortstop to lead the National League in home runs in 21 years. "You still have to go up there and be aggressive. He just threw the ball really well tonight."
Before the Weeks-Hardy flurry, Hamels was not even challenged. Following a 92-minute rain delay, the 23-year-old former first-round draft pick struck out the first four Brewers hitters he faced. The Brewers hit only one ball out of the infield during the first six innings, a Corey Hart flyout to shallow right field in the fifth.
From the outset, Hamels had "no-hit stuff."
"It sure looked like he had it early," Yost said. "But you don't resign yourself mentally to that. You keep battling, try to find a way to keep it close. He was tough, you can't take that away from him. That's as good a pitching performance as we've seen all year."
"From my perspective, I thought all of his pitches looked similar," said Brewers starter Jeff Suppan (5-4), who struck out against Hamels in the third inning and grounded out to first base in the sixth. "I couldn't really tell the difference [between Hamels' fastball and changeup] when I was hitting. But I'm a pitcher, so does that really matter?"
Apparently not. Suppan's sharply-hit grounder to end the sixth was actually the Brewers' best chance for a base hit in the first six innings.
In eight total innings of work, Hamels surrendered two runs on two hits -- Hardy's homer in the seventh inning and Damian Miller's double with one out in the eighth -- and won his fourth straight start. Hamels has pitched at least seven innings in each of those four games.
Milwaukee fell into an early hole as Suppan surrendered five runs over the first two innings, two of which scored unearned in the first after a Hardy error and four of which scored with two outs.
"You have to keep making pitches, that's the bottom line," Suppan said.
Suppan was charged with six runs -- four earned -- on nine hits in seven innings and lost his second consecutive start after winning the previous five. The second inning really hurt him; after striking out Greg Dobbs and Abraham Nunez to open the frame, he walked Carlos Ruiz, then surrendered a single to Hamels and a three-run home run to Aaron Rowand that opened a 5-0 Phillies lead.
Of Hamels, Suppan said: "He threw the ball well and he swung the bat well."
The Brewers have been no-hit twice in their 37-year history, by Kansas City's Steve Busby in 1974 and by Minnesota's Scott Erickson in 1994.
Did Hamels' performance Wednesday have the feel of no-hit stuff?
"I didn't really get that feeling tonight," said catcher Johnny Estrada, who did not play in Wednesday's game but has been on the wrong end of two no-hitters, Randy Johnson's perfect game for the Diamondbacks against Estrada's Braves in 2004 and Anibal Sanchez's no-hitter for the Marlins over Estrada and the Diamondbacks in 2006. Estrada didn't play in the 2006 game, either, but he went 0-for-3 and struck out twice against Johnson.
"That Randy Johnson game, the second time through the order we knew we had no chance," Estrada said. "You start to press and thinking that you've got to get a hit. Today, when J.J. hit the homer, we weren't thinking about breaking up the no-hitter, we were thinking that we would win the game."
Now the Brewers will have to focus on winning a game. Their four-game skid is their longest of the season, and at 9-10 on the road they dropped under .500 away from Miller Park for the first time since losing their first road game of the year at Florida.
Still, at 25-15 the Brewers are tied for the most wins in the NL. They lead second-place Houston in the NL Central by 4 1/2 games.
During Spring Training, Yost might have been happy if told his club would be 10 games over .500 after 40 games. That did not fly on Wednesday.
"Shut that. We don't care about that," Yost said. "We were 14 games over .500, now we're 10. We're not happy with that. A four-game losing streak is not what we're looking for, and we're not going to settle for it. Yeah, we're 10 games over, but we could be better."
Adam McCalvy is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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