The Brewers may be taking a break from dominating their fellow National League Central residents, but at least they get to remain at Miller Park for another few days.
Owners of the best home record in baseball, Milwaukee and starter Randy Wolf both go after a fourth straight victory this evening in the first of four straight games against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Brewers' extra-inning, 2-1 victory over the Pirates on Sunday wrapped up a stretch of 18 straight games versus the NL Central. The division leaders went 16-2 in that span and won their 12th straight game over Pittsburgh when Nyjer Morgan lifted a game-winning sacrifice fly in the 10th inning.
Milwaukee, which improved to 44-15 at home this season, rallied to tie the game in the eighth inning thanks to an extra out. Morgan struck out swinging in the frame, but the ball got away from Pirates catcher Michael McKenry, allowing Morgan to reach first and Jerry Hairston third. Ryan Braun then followed with a single up the middle to tie the game at 1-1.
"Breaks seem to happen when you're going good and we got some," said Brewers manager Ron Roenicke, whose club leads the Cardinals by five games for the top spot in the NL Central.
Wolf, meanwhile, has allowed just six runs over a three-start winning streak that comes on the heels of four straight losing decisions. He gave up just one run on five hits over eight innings versus the Cardinals on Wednesday and did not walk a batter while improving to 9-8 with a 3.48 earned run average on the season.
"He got a lot stronger as the game went along," Roenicke said. "He threw the fastball in and out of the zone, threw some great changeups, nice breaking balls."
The 34-year-old is 3-4 with a 3.66 ERA in 11 career starts versus the Dodgers, who he pitched with in both 2007 and '09. That record includes a 3-0 loss on May 17 when he yielded two runs over 5 1/3 frames of work.
Los Angeles hits the road for 10 straight and has had some success at Miller Park as of late. The Dodgers swept a three-game series there last year in August and have won eight of their last 10 in Milwaukee.
After getting swept in three games by the Phillies to begin a homestand, the Dodgers ended the residency by taking all three meetings with the Astros. LA held Houston to just a single run over the set and finished off the sweep with Sunday's 7-0 victory.
The Dodgers hit three homers in the win, with Matt Kemp hitting his career high-tying 28th homer and Justin Sellers going deep for the first time in three big-league games.
"Being in the minors seven years, I've always had the confidence I could play here. It's an awesome feeling," Sellers said about his first career homer.
Dioner Navarro also homered and Hiroki Kuroda hurled seven scoreless innings to claim the victory. Ted Lilly will follow up that excellent outing tonight looking to shake off some recent bad luck.
Lilly has thrown some of his best baseball over the past two starts, but has lost both outings. He gave up one run in a 3-0 defeat to the Padres before coming out on the short end of a 2-1 setback to the Phillies on Tuesday. Lilly pitched eight innings in that one, giving up both runs on six hits with five strikeouts.
The 35-year-old has lowered his season ERA to 4.71 to go along with a 7-12 record in 24 starts. He has yet to face the Brewers this season and is 5-2 against them in his career with a 3.54 ERA.
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