Cubs' sixth-inning tear foils Sheets, Brewers
MILWAUKEE -- Leave it to Ben Sheets to wrap things up on an abysmal night for the Milwaukee Brewers.
"I think they outplayed us in every facet of the game," the Brewers' right-hander said after a 7-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday at Miller Park. "Starting on the mound."
Maybe Sheets was being too self-critical, especially considering that Milwaukee bats took the night off against dominating Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano. But given the opponent and the situation (the Brewers entered Tuesday two games behind the Cubs in the NL Central), it was hardly a opportune time for Sheets to struggle in the middle innings.
The Cubs strung together seven hits to open a five-run sixth inning, opening up a wide lead in what was a close game.
Sheets allowed season-high-tying sums of 11 hits and six earned runs in 5 1/3 innings, ending his July ledger with only one win in five starts.
"There's nothing going on with him," Brewers manager Ned Yost said in an effort to calm fears. "His stuff is good. Command is decent. ... He was pitching really, really well until the sixth inning. Pitch count was down, at 75 pitches. It just started to pile up on him."
In hindsight, it wasn't all on Sheets because the Brewers couldn't find a way to crack Zambrano (12-4), who struck out nine in eight scoreless innings.
But the Brewers were down only 1-0 before things crashed down on Sheets.
The Cubs' explosive sixth made it the second time in three days that a Brewers starter was shelled in a middle inning. On Sunday, the Astros scored seven times off Jeff Suppan in the fifth to turn a 4-1 deficit into an 8-4 lead.
Chicago got five singles, a double and a triple before Sheets was able to record an out in the sixth Tuesday, and that fly to deep center scored a run, too.
Derrek Lee singled and Aramis Ramirez doubled (his second of three two-baggers on the night) before Kosuke Fukudome brought them both home. Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun charged Fukudome's liner to left and dived at it, but it bounced past him and to the wall for a triple.
Brewers manager Ned Yost said the dive was Braun's only play, but Braun said he probably could have pulled up and tried to simply keep the ball in front of him.
"With the way Zambrano's throwing, you've got to try to make a play right there," Braun said. "If I would have played that conservatively, they would have had first and third, nobody out, up 2-0. I felt like I needed to be aggressive, try to make a play, and unfortunately I couldn't get to it."
Fukudome came home on Mark DeRosa's single, and Mike Fontenot and Geovany Soto loaded the bases with two more singles.
When Zambrano grounded to short, J.J. Hardy threw home but watched the ball hit DeRosa in the back and bounce away. Alfonso Soriano's sacrifice fly made it 6-0 and signaled the end of the night for Sheets (10-4).
Yost said his strategy with the Brewers' top two starters -- Sheets and CC Sabathia -- is to give them more rein to get themselves out of trouble.
"With all-star pitchers, you have to allow them the ability to work through tough situations because they have proven to you that they're capable of getting through those situations," Yost said. "Now, they're not going to do it every time, and obviously Benny couldn't do it tonight. But with that strategy, you're going to win a lot of ball games with a pitcher like Ben Sheets and CC Sabathia."
The outing launched Sheets' ERA for July from 3.04 to 4.34, the highest of any month this season. In his five July starts, he was 1-2, and he has gone four starts without a victory. The last time he had a longer stretch was on both ends of a stop on the disabled list in 2005.
On Tuesday, he couldn't keep the Cubs off the bases -- he never retired more than four straight batters in facing 28 -- but it didn't initially cost him on the scoreboard.
Chicago had at least one runner on base in each inning that Sheets worked and got the leadoff runner on base each inning from the third through the sixth.
The Cubs left runners on third in the first and third innings but broke through in the fourth. Ramirez doubled to open the inning and advanced on a wild pitch that proved important when he scored on DeRosa's one-out sacrifice fly.
Since an eight-game winning streak that included a seven-game road sweep coming out of the all-star break, the Brewers have lost four of five at home, guaranteeing their first losing home stand since April 21-27 against St. Louis and Florida.
It only makes matters worse that the two most recent losses came to the team they're chasing and with Milwaukee's two best pitchers on the mound.
"Nobody's won the Central title right now," Sheets said. "We don't want to give no more away, but there's still a lot of season left. ... We've still got a very good team, regardless of what's happened the last couple of days."
Jeff Hanisch/Associated Press
The Milwaukee Brewers' Ben Sheets reacts after giving up a two-run triple to the Chicago Cubs' Kosuke Fukudome during the sixth inning Tuesday in Milwaukee.
