Manny Parra had two of the team's six hits as the Brewers lost, 7-2 to Chicago, extending their losing streak to four games (five losses in the last six games) and putting Milwaukee three games behind the Cubs in the National League Central.
Once again, the Brewers were done in by a complete and total lack of situational hitting. Seven times, they had runners in scoring position and the Brewers failed to get a hit each time. In all, the Brewers have just three hits in their last 60 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
That, in and of itself is the biggest reason the Brewers have failed to gain ground on the Cubs in this all-important mid-season series.
Manager Ned Yost doesn't fault his offense, which has struggled with runners on all season long, so much as he credits the pitchers his team has faced so far in the Cubs' Ted Lilly, Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster.
"We've faced two All-Star pitchers the last two days," Yost said. "Those were very good pitchers.
"That stuff happens when you face real good pitchers. They make you wonder about your runners in scoring position batting average when there's nothing there to really wonder about."
Dempster became the latest Cubs starter to baffle Brewers batters. He left after seven innings of work, having struck out 11, and allowing just one walk to improve to 12-4 on the season. The Brewers have now struck out 30 times against the Cubs while drawing just seven walks.
Milwaukee batters have 20 hits in the first three games but have scored just seven runs with four of those coming Monday night. The Brewers have been outhit, 40-20, and outscored, 20-7 in the series' first three games.
"Their pitching has done a really nice job of shutting down our offense," Yost said.
Milwaukee's first run came in the first. Ray Durham, making his third start and second in a row at second base, led off with a double and advanced to third on J.J Hardy's fly out to right. Dempster's offering to Corey Hart got past catcher Henry Blanco allowing Durham to score and Prince Fielder, who walked, to move to second base.
Hart struck out to end the inning. The Brewers didn't score again until the ninth, when Fielder hit a one-out homer to right-center to make it 7-2.
While impressive at the plate (2 for 2 with a double and triple), Parra wasn't sharp on the mound. A two run first and three-run sixth four scoreless innings, during which he allowed just three runs and three walks. Parra lasted 5 2/3 innings and finished with five runs on eight hits with four walks and five strikeouts.
"I feel like I made some good pitches and I hit them," Parra said. "I made some bad ones and they capitalized on them. Right now, it's pretty frustrating."
His first run came in the opening inning on a fluke play that should have ended the inning. He got Reed Johnson to swing at strike three, but the split-finger fastball skipped in the dirt and got away from catcher Jason Kendall. Kendall's throw bounced off Fielder's glove, allowing Alfonso Soriano to score on the wild pitch.
"That's the tough thing about having a split-finger be your out pitch, because it's tough to block, and he blocks it 98 percent of the time," Parra said. "Bottom line, though, it's a wild pitch."
The two teams meet again for the final time until September - where they will play six times in the final three weekends of the season - this afternoon. Dave Bush will face Chicago's Rich Harden.
Yost doesn't want to see his team fall five games back in the division, or behind the Cardinals in the Wild-Card hunt, but wasn't ready to concede the matchup as a do-or-die type of game.
"We think tomorrow's a must-win game but to be honest with you I'd be saying that if we'd won these three games," Yost said. "I'd be a lot happier saying it, but our job tomorrow is to try to find out how to cool off a hot club."
