MILWAUKEE — It was nearly an hour after the Milwaukee Brewers had lost to the Cincinnati Reds Thursday afternoon and Prince Fielder was still in full uniform, leaning back on his chair with his hands folded on his chest, staring into the abyss of his locker.

One moment, this is the contemplative Fielder, aware that baseball is not a fair game.

The next, this is the angry Fielder, who believes he should be doing better than he is.

"It's baseball. It's not fun all the time," he said. "You just have to deal with it."

Fielder wasn't the only Brewer collared by Reds starter Aaron Harang and closer Francisco Cordero in Cincinnati's 4-1 win at Miller Park. But his hitless streak is at 11 at-bats, and he has just one hit in his last 15 at-bats.

For the season, Fielder, who led the National League with 50 home runs last season, is hitting .242 without a homer.

"C'mon, man. What do you think?" he said tersely when asked if he was otherwise pleased with how he is swinging the bat. "Of course I'm not OK with it.

"You can see the scoreboard. It's god awful. I'm in the middle of the lineup. I have to do better. But I'll keep going out there and you never know, I might run into one."

Brewers manager Ned Yost is convinced Fielder will run into more than his fair share over the course of the season.

Yost used Fielder's sixth-inning at-bat against Harang as an example of how close he is.

"Guys don't stand up there and hit the ball hard every time up, and I don't mean that to be smart," Yost said. "You face good pitching, a guy like Aaron Harang, you're hoping you can get one or two pitches you can hit, and you're battling and fighting the rest of the time.

"(Fielder) got one pitch that he just got under and skied it to right. We're talking about half an inch, a quarter of an inch more, and that ball is in the seats. There's no concern."

History says Fielder's time will come, because he's not exactly a burner out of the gate.

In his first full season two years ago, he didn't hit a home run until the fifth game and his second until the 14th. He finished the season with 28.

Last year, Fielder hit his first home run in the second game but needed 14 more to get No. 2. After that slow start, he averaged a home run every three games, or every 10.7 at-bats.

But Fielder isn't thinking about home runs.

"I want to hit the ball hard first," he said. "You can't think about home runs if you can't make solid contact. I want to hit the ball hard and see what happens."

Yost understands Fielder is frustrated, but that's not necessarily bad.

"If he doesn't get frustrated in the situation, that kind of says that the desire level is not exactly where you want it to be," Yost said.

Said Fielder: "This is how I am. I try not to be. But I'll worry about that when I retire. It's just the way I am."