|
MILWAUKEE -- Kyle Lohse pumped his right first waiting in the on-deck circle as Jean Seguras three-run homer cleared the left-field fence in the second inning. Vince Wilfork Jersey . It sure felt good for Milwaukees veteran right-hander to get some early run support in Miller Park from a lineup off to a middling start at the plate at home. Lohse allowed five hits and no walks in seven innings, Khris Davis added a solo shot in the fourth and the Brewers improved to a big league-best 16-6 with a 5-2 win Wednesday night over the San Diego Padres. "You get some runs on the board, it is big for us to go out and shut down the next inning to keep the other team down and keep the momentum going," Lohse said. Francisco Rodriguez pitched a scoreless ninth for his ninth save, his 313th over 12 full big league seasons. Brewers batters backed up another good outing by the pitching staff with nine hits at home, where the team had been averaging just two runs and six hits entering the night. After four straight one-run games, going 3-1, the Brewers got a relative breather. "Its always nice coming in to the last inning with Frankie coming out there and he doesnt have to be perfect," manager Ron Roenicke said. "If youre two runs up with your closer coming in you feel really good about a ball game." Roenicke said before the game it was only a matter of time before his squad broke out of its hitting slump at home -- and his players backed him up with four runs and five hits in the first two innings. Tyson Ross (2-3) allowed a season-high five earned runs in six innings, regressing after striking out nine and shutting out the Giants over eight innings in his previous start last week. He had little to celebrate Wednesday, a day after he turned 27. Milwaukee was aggressive from the outset and made solid contact early in counts. Ryan Braun doubled home a run in the first on a 1-1 pitch, the same count on which eighth-place hitter Segura hit a 385-foot homer off the green facade over the left-field wall. "He just couldnt get ahead of hitters and put them away," Padres manager Bud Black said of Ross. "They jumped out on some balls that were out of over the plate. The big blow was the home run." Getting the 24-year-old Segura going will help whats already a potent Brewers lineup. Segura, who was dropped from second to eighth in the order after starting the season hitting .232, hit his first homer since July 30, spanning 269 plate appearances. Segura said being dropped in the order was tough, but he feels hes making progress with the bat. Still, the Brewers are 10 games over .500 even with Segura still finding his way. "Were doing some great things on the field, pitching, bullpen," Segura said. "Were going in the right direction." San Diego took a 1-0 lead in the first off of Seth Smiths sacrifice fly, but was otherwise limited until pinch-hitter Nick Hundleys RBI single with two outs in the seventh. Lohse, in his 14th season in the majors, was changing speeds and mixing his curve effectively with a slider and fastball. "He used both sides of the plate extremely well. It was a veteran pitcher making pitches," Black said. "It was really Pitching 101." NOTES: A fan sitting in the front row next to the Brewers dugout left with an ice pack on her right wrist after apparently being hit by a bat that flew out of the hands of Padres pinch-hitter Yasmani Grandal in the seventh on a strikeout. ... Black said RHP Josh Johnson is scheduled for elbow ligament-replacement surgery for the second time in his career and will miss the entire season. Johnson was placed on the DL before the season began. ... Brewers RHP Brandon Kintzler (rotator cuff) had a 40-pitch bullpen session Wednesday and appears on track to return from the DL on Friday. The setup man has been sidelined since April 9. ... The Padres will start LHP Eric Stults (1-2) when they begin a three-game series in Washington on Thursday. ... The Brewers are off Thursday and plan to start RHP Matt Garza (0-2) at home against the Cubs on Friday. Patrick Chung Patriots Jersey .C. -- After a listless first half, the Washington Wizards used a big third quarter run to beat the Charlotte Bobcats Bradley Beal scored 21 points and the Wizards used a 17-0 run in the third quarter to take control of what had been a close game and beat the Bobcats 97-83 on Tuesday night. James Develin Jersey . Pro Bowl centre Maurkice Pouncey ripped up his right knee and linebacker Larry Foote ruptured his biceps during Pittsburghs 16-9 home loss to Tennessee, likely sidelining both players for the rest of the season. BORMIO, Italy -- Aiming for back-to-back victories, Canadas Erik Guay simply wants to maintain his form for Sundays World Cup downhill on the physically demanding Stelvio course. The Bode Miller-led U.S. speed team, by contrast, is still looking for its first podium finish of the season -- with the Sochi Olympics only 41 days away. And if the final training session in Bormio was any indication, things havent changed much since last weekend, when Guay won the Val Gardena downhill and Miller finished fifth. Guay, from Mont-Tremblant, Que., also led training Saturday and Miller was fifth again. "I feel like my racing is in a really good spot -- better than its ever been," Guay said. "And I know the reason as well, so thats pretty exciting." Guay won the Val Gardena downhill last weekend but has never finished better than fourth in Bormio. "Some years I come here and Im intimidated by the course and I dont feel quite up to it," he said. "This year Im excited about it and Im looking forward to the challenge tomorrow." While Guay would not reveal the "reason" for his speed, he did attribute some of his success to his personal coach, his younger brother Stefan Guay, a former World Cup racer. "To start working well with a coach typically takes two years, sometimes three," Guay said. "Stef now in his second season, I find hes getting confident and better every time. So that instills a lot of confidence in myself." The Stelvio is known for its knee-jarring bumps and shadows, making it a serious physical test. And this year, theres an added wrinkle with recent snowfall providing changing conditions all the way down. "Up top its quite soft and then toward the middle it gets a little bit firmer and more choppy and then toward the bottom its standard Bormio -- rock hard, fast, rattly," Guay said. "So its got a little bit of everything and it takes a fine touch to adjust on the way down. But its a fun course." Miller is still working on his downhill form after a year off to recover from left knee microfracture surgery, but hes comforted by top 10 results in both super-G and downhill last weekend, plus past success in Bormio. Tom Brady Patriots Jersey. He swept the gold medals in super-G and downhill at the 2005 world championships here and also won the World Cup downhill in 2007. "It hasnt been the season that I had hoped but Ive been making progress all year," Miller said. "I look forward to hills that are a little bit tougher and a little more challenging and this one definitely is that." While Miller finished second to Ted Ligety in a giant slalom in Beaver Creek, Colorado, this month, no U.S. man has reached the podium in a speed race this season. "Its definitely been a bit of a slow start but weve definitely been building -- slowly," said Marco Sullivan, the veteran skier from Squaw Valley, California. "We have four or five guys who are consistently in the points, its just a matter of moving into that top 10." Its been a sharp change from this point last season, when Sullivan had finished third in the season-opening downhill in Lake Louise, Alberta; Steven Nyman had won the Val Gardena downhill; and Ligety had placed fourth in two super-Gs. Could it be that the Americans are pacing themselves to peak in Sochi? "I dont think thats it," Sullivan said. "I dont really know what to attribute it to but no one is going slow on purpose. Were all trying to go fast each week." One of the problems has been the race conditions. "The first couple of races were cold and icy and we hadnt trained on that," U.S. mens head coach Sasha Rearick said. "Now weve had the chance to do that." Errors have also played a role, with both Ligety and Nyman failing to finish races in Val Gardena. But there are signs of a turnaround, with Miller, Sullivan and Travis Ganong -- another Squaw Valley native -- combining to set the fastest time in every section in Fridays opening training session, when Miller was second. "Its kind of a cool stat," Nyman said. "But its just putting it all together and I think thats kind of the big thing right now." ' ' ' |
