MILWAUKEE — Ben Sheets and the Milwaukee Brewers never knew what hit them in the seventh inning Thursday afternoon.

That's a bit of an exaggeration, of course, if only because Sheets and the Brewers knew it was the Los Angeles Dodgers who hit them, in particular Andruw Jones, Jeff Kent and Gary Bennett, each of whom hit home runs in that breakout inning.

But the point is that Sheets looked to be cruising toward his second shutout of the season when it all came crashing down in what turned out to be a 7-2 loss to the Dodgers before 30,444 at Miller Park.

Sheets opened with three perfect innings, scattered three singles over the next three innings and seemed in complete control before the Dodgers erupted for six runs on six hits to close out the three-game series with their second straight victory.

"That was a rough one," the right-hander said. "I'm better than that. That's a lot of runs to give up in one inning."

The inning started harmlessly enough as the struggling Jones launched his second home run of the season into the Brewers' bullpen in left field to snap the scoreless tie.

Then it all came apart after one out when Kent homered to make it 2-0. James Loney tripled down the left-field line when Ryan Braun missed a diving attempt for a catch and the ball skipped to the wall. Loney scored on Russell Martin's single, and Martin then moved to second on a single by shortstop Luis Maza — his first major league hit.

Bennett, a journeyman catcher who had 22 home runs in a major league career stretching back to 1995, then made it 23 — and one for the season — with a three-run drive. Bennett wasn't even in the Dodgers' original lineup, but was inserted when manager Joe Torre moved Martin to third base in place of Blake DeWitt (back spasms).

Brewers manager Ned Yost used the term "snowballed" to describe what happened, but from Sheets' perspective it was more of an avalanche.

"I made worse pitches, a lot of (bad) pitches in that inning," he said. "I'm better than that. I know it's not going to happen again, but it happened today.

"It was kind of baffling. I would say that's my worst inning ever. ... It was a hell of a way to (throw) away six good innings."

Sheets had to be that good through six innings because Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley (3-5) was even better. Billingsley didn't allow a hit for 42⁄3 innings and the source of that single was the most unexpected of the Brewers — Sheets.

Joe Dillon managed a leadoff single in the seventh for the second hit off Billingsley, but that was erased by an inning-ending double play off the bat of pinch-hitter Gabe Kapler.

The Brewers finally got to Billingsley in the eighth when Jason Kendall led off with a triple and scored when J.J. Hardy grounded into a double play against reliever Jonathan Broxton.

Braun, whose new long-term contract worth $45 million was announced 2 hours before the game, hit a solo home run to center off Broxton for the final run.

But just about any Brewers offensive effort wasn't going to match what the Dodgers did to Sheets in the seventh.

"I don't know what went wrong," he said. "Something's going to be fixed, but I don't know what it's going to be.

"I did a lot of good things. I felt like I actually got better — but it's tough to say that after an inning like that."