... THREE UP

Working the count: Manager Dale Sveum was musing prior to the game about how effective the Brewers can be forcing up a starter's pitch count. ''We can make them throw 80, 90 pitches in four innings,'' he said. ''But sometimes we still can't score.'' That was the case Thursday, but forcing Cubs starter Rich Harden to throw 115 pitches in five innings also meant the Cubs had to go to their bullpen, which gave up four runs in the sixth and five overall.

Who was that man? The roots of the Brewers' September slide began in the eighth inning of the Labor Day game against the New York Mets when Eric Gagne was charged with protecting a 2-1 lead and gave up three runs to take the loss. Now, though perhaps late, Gagne is making amends. He needed eight pitches Wednesday night in a perfect seventh inning and just four for another perfect seventh Thursday.

Here's to you: One of the biggest cheers of the day went to the usher stationed in the Brewers bullpen. In the fifth, he hustled his way to dead center to pick up a beach ball and hustled back. When he returned, Brewers pitcher Seth McClung walked to the water cooler, poured a glass and delivered it to the gassed usher.

... THREE DOWN

No man's land: Dave Bush's biggest mistake was not the home run pitch to Jim Edmonds in the second or Aramis Ramirez in fourth. It was getting caught undecided at second base on Ray Durham's one-hop double off the wall in the right-field corner. Bush apparently thought Kosuke Fukudome had a chance to catch it and retreated back to second to tag as the ball hit the track. Bush had to stop at third on the hit instead of scoring and the Brewers didn't score in the inning.

They call the wind: Words that can't be printed in a family newspaper. Or at least that's the case for Ryan Braun, who saw his drive with two on in the first die just to the right of the 400 sign in center, and J.J. Hardy, whose fourth-inning leadoff drive to left-center died at the track and fifth-inning, bases-loaded smash died at the right-field wall courtesy of the flag-stiffening breezes off Lake Michigan.

Injury updates: Outfielder Gabe Kapler, the team's best pinch-hitter, rejoined the team after a week's absence because of a right shoulder strain but was not given the clearance to play. Third baseman Mat Gamel, a September callup, is suffering from elbow tendinitis and won't be in Cincinnati.