MILWAUKEE — For six innings Thursday afternoon, Carlos Villanueva was on cruise control.

He coasted through four innings without allowing a hit to the Cincinnati Reds. He survived a potentially nasty jam in the fifth by allowing just one run to keep the game tied at 1. Fifteen of his first 18 outs never left the infield, a stretch that included four strikeouts.

But when the seventh inning came, all that was so good about Villanueva turned suddenly bad.

What started with Adam Dunn's check-swing single to left ended with three Cincinnati runs as the Reds took the deciding game of the three-game series with a 4-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers before 25,023 fans at Miller Park.

Edwin Encarnacion followed Dunn's single with his second home run of the season to give the Reds a 3-1 lead.

Villanueva (1-1) lasted just three more hitters, as Scott Hatteberg doubled and scored on Paul Bako's single to right.

"I don't have any explanation how you can be lights out and then (give up) five straight hits," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "You have to learn from these situations so it doesn't happen again. (Villanueva) can execute. He has weapons. But in the seventh inning, the execution tailed off."

Villanueva was equally baffled.

"I felt fine. That's what's so disappointing," he said. "I didn't feel fatigued. I just got the ball up a little bit.''

Reds starter Aaron Harang (1-1) made just two mistakes over eight innings. He allowed a leadoff double to Bill Hall in the second and a one-out, run-scoring single to J.J. Hardy.

The ninth inning brought a familiar face, new Reds closer Francisco Cordero. The former Brewer was greeted with some boos as he was announced and he used that emotion to fuel a perfect inning for his second save of the season.

"You come to a city like I did in '06 and I won the fans," said Cordero, who had 60 saves in 1� seasons with the Brewers.  "Everybody loved me over here. Next thing you know, you're in a different uniform and all those cheers go to boos. It's kind of different.

"It gives you a little more excitement to go to the mound and do your job. But there's no hard feelings."

On the road again

The Brewers take to the road for their first extended trip of the season, opening a three-game series against the New York Mets tonight. Then it's on to St. Louis and Cincinnati for a pair of three-game series.

The Brewers were dismal on the road last season, going 32-49, the third-worst road record in the National League.

"If there was anything to say or do to change the way we played on the road last year, we would have," Yost said. "It just happens with maturity, through consistency. They're growing, maturing and developing, so let them go play."

The weather forecast for the series against the Mets isn't promising.

But if the rain holds off, Saturday afternoon's game figures to be a delight for those who like pitching. Brewers ace Ben Sheets, who has yet to allow a run this season, faces Mets left-hander Johan Santana, their big-time offseason acquisition from the Minnesota Twins.