LOS ANGELES – Carlos Gomez was at the right place at the right time to rob Juan Uribe of a home run. Even though it happened in the second inning, it gave the Milwaukee Brewers the impetus to win a rare low-scoring game.
Shaun Marcum outpitched Jon Garland to win his fifth straight decision and Rickie Weeks singled home the go-ahead run, helping lead the Brewers over the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 on Monday night.
"The pitch to Uribe wasn't very good, but thank God we had Carlos out there and he made a great play," Marcum said. "He probably saved the game for us."
Marcum (5-1) retired his first four batters before the slumping Uribe hit a drive to left-center and discarded the bat with the anticipation of a home run trot. But Gomez raced back and made a leaping catch above the 8-foot high fence, drawing some scattered applause from the crowd of 35,346.
"I was playing about two or three steps toward left field and he hit it pretty good, but I thought it was going to be a routine flyball," Gomez said. "I didn't think the ball was going to go that far, but it was very high, and I timed it really good and made a perfect jump. I knew we were going to win the game after that — because most times we make plays like that, everybody's motivated to do the things we have to do to win the game."
The Brewers, coming off a three-game sweep against Pittsburgh, have won seven of nine following a seven-game losing streak. Prince Fielder drove in their other run with a third-inning single.
Marcum allowed a run and five hits over seven innings and struck out four. The right-hander's only loss was in his Brewers debut April 2. He has a 2.08 ERA in eight starts since.
"It's great to get the win, but as far as locating pitches and stuff like that, it wasn't very good," Marcum said. "But I was able to locate some pitches and get outs when they got guys on base and pitch out of some jams. I've said from Day 1 that if we could limit the other team the opposing team to less than four runs, we're going to win a lot of games. And for the most part, I've been able to do that."
Kameron Loe pitched a perfect eighth and John Axford did likewise in the ninth, striking out Matt Kemp and Uribe and retiring James Loney on a flyball to pick up his ninth save in 11 chances and first on the road.
Garland (1-3) threw 94 pitches in six innings, allowing two runs, seven hits and four walks with one strikeout. The right-hander threw 25 pitches over two scoreless innings last Thursday night at Pittsburgh before the game was rained out.
"With the way Marcum was throwing the ball at the start of the game, you knew you were going to have one of those battles. And that's what it turned out to be," Garland said. "It's silly to think you can go out there and throw shutouts every night, so you just have to keep trying to make your pitch, get as many outs as you can and give the team the best opportunity to win."
Weeks, who came in 5 for 28 with runners in scoring position, snapped a 1-1 tie with a sharp ground single through the left side of the infield after Garland walked Marcum on a borderline 3-2 pitch with two outs in the sixth. The hit scored Corey Hart, who led off with a double.
"I thought there were a couple of close ones there," Garland said when asked about umpire Brian Knight's strike zone. "He had a tight zone all night and he didn't budge. And it ended up costing me the game."
Gomez was on deck in the third inning when Dodgers left fielder Jay Gibbons raced toward the fence and caught Weeks' extra-base bid a split-second before crashing against the auxiliary scoreboard. Gomez was struck on the right hand with a pitch as he tried to check his swing, then stole second and scored on Fielder's sharp ground single past shortstop Jamey Carroll.
Garland escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fourth by striking out Gomez, and the Dodgers tied it in the bottom half on Kemp's sacrifice fly after Carroll led off the inning with a bloop single and Aaron Miles bunted his way on.
Notes: The Dodgers fans' disenchantment with embattled owner Frank McCourt — and the team's 19-23 record — hasn't turned Chavez Ravine into a ghost town just yet. But they've drawn only two crowds of 40,000 or more in 16 home games since the season-opening four-game series against San Francisco. Both were a result of promotional giveaways. ... The Brewers had at least one baserunner in every inning and stranded 14 overall. ... Garland did not retire more than three consecutive batters at any one time. He is 0-2 in his last four official starts despite a 2.65 ERA during that stretch. ... Gibbons made his third start in the outfield after missing the first 30 games because of vision problems. His leadoff double in the fifth was his first extra-base hit. ... The Brewers are 25 for 32 on stolen-base attempts. ... Fielder raised his RBI total to 32, after setting a franchise record for April by driving in 26 runs. He and Ryan Braun have combined for 65 RBIs, tying Texas' Michael Young and Adrian Beltre for the highest total by a set of teammates.
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