The struggling Milwaukee Brewers pay a visit to the City of Brotherly Love Friday night, hoping to snap a six-game slide in the opener of a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
Milwaukee has hit rock bottom of late with six straight losses and 13 in the past 16 tries. It just lost all four meetings with the Minnesota Twins in a home-and-home series, including Thursday's 8-6 defeat in the finale at Target Field.
Last in the NL Central with a 19-33 mark, Brewers starter Kyle Lohse couldn't make it out of the fifth inning and was tagged for six runs and eight hits in 4 2/3 innings of work. He is now 1-6 on the season. Lohse had been dealing with an elbow issue, but said that wasn't the case.
"Physically, I wasn't having the pain in the elbow where I had it before; I just didn't locate the ball," Lohse said. "That's the bottom line. You can't throw fastballs in the zone, or you're going to get hurt. A guy like me, I've got to locate, change speeds, and I didn't do a very good job."
Logan Schafer had a three-run triple and finished with three hits and a run scored, while Jeff Bianchi was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored for the Brewers.
Milwaukee, which is just 7-16 away from Miller Park, will send Yovani Gallardo to the mound Friday. He has lost four straight starts and lasted only four innings in Sunday's 5-4 loss to Pittsburgh and allowed four runs and five hits. The right-hander hasn't won since April 29 and is 3-5 with a 4.79 earned run average in 11 starts.
Gallardo has dominated the Phillies in his career, going 3-0 with a strong 1.74 ERA in three starts (20 2/3 innings). That could change Friday since he's just 1-3 in four road assignments this season.
Philadelphia split its four-game home-and-home series with the Boston Red Sox and suffered a 9-2 loss in Thursday's finale.
Jonathan Pettibone was saddled with his first loss of the season and gave up four runs and six hits in five innings.
"Part of the plan was to pound some of the lefties in and I was just trying to fine-tune it too much," said Pettibone. "Some of the pitches wound up being balls and I fell behind in the count too often."
Jeremy Horst allowed two runs in relief and Chad Durbin gave up three more.
Delmon Young hit a two-run homer and Domonic Brown continued to stay hot with a pair of hits for the Phillies, who had won two in a row and five of eight. Brown is batting .295 with 10 homers and 21 RBI this month.
Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard had the night off and is expected to start Friday versus the Brewers. Howard is batting .323 with three doubles, one home run, four RBI and 14 strikeouts in his last eight games. Kevin Frandsen played first base on Thursday and went 1-for-3 with a double.
Cole Hamels draws the start for the Phillies tonight and is riding a personal five-game losing streak. The slide resumed with Sunday's 6-1 loss at Washington and Hamels gave up five runs -- three earned -- in 6 1/3 innings to fall to 1-8 in 11 starts with a 4.43 earned run average.
The left-hander has received seven runs of support during his current losing streak and hasn't won since April 28 against the New York Mets. Hamels is 0-4 in five home starts, but is 6-2 with a 3.42 ERA in 10 career starts against the Brewers.
Philadelphia, which will also host Miami on its current eight-game homestand, won five of its seven matchups with Milwaukee a season ago. The Phillies are 9-3 in the previous 12 meetings against the Brewers.
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