LOS ANGELES - After making his second start since rejoining the Milwaukee Brewers' rotation following a five-week absence caused by an inner ear infection, Ben Sheets declared his stamina to be "great" Thursday night.

But that was of no consolation to Milwaukee's ace right-hander, who surrendered three home runs in five-plus innings - two to J.D. Drew and one to Jeff Kent - in a 6-4 Los Angeles win before 32,004 at Dodger Stadium.

"That don't mean anything to feel good," said a visibly disgusted Sheets, who fell to 1-5 and saw his earned average soar from 3.62 to 4.34.

"I want to win. You'd rather feel bad and win than feel good and lose."

After retiring the first 11 Dodgers in order - including five on strikeouts - Sheets started to unravel when Drew belted a back-door curveball to dead center to cut the Milwaukee lead to 3-1.

Four pitches later, Kent clobbered a 2-1 fastball to the bleachers in left, his 10th homer of the season.

"I was still mad from the first one," Sheets said. "I can't let that happen. I think a curveball's a good pitch to Drew, and I leave it up and he hits it out."

The Dodgers, coming off a three-game sweep at home by the Cubs, tied it at 3-3 in the fifth when Jason Phillips singled in Jayson Werth, who had reached on a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch.

The crushing blows, however, came an inning later when Antonio Perez ripped a leadoff double and Drew followed with a blast to right-center for his ninth homer and eighth career multi-homer game making it 5-3 and ending Sheets' night after 83 pitches.

"One changeup all day and it flies out of the park," Sheets said of Drew's latter round-tripper. "That's my changeup for you."

However, given Sheets' extended stint on the disabled list, Milwaukee manager Ned Yost said it's only natural for him to experience some bumps on his comeback trail.

"That's the problem," Yost said. "You're getting back into the swing of things and your command starts to sharpen up. It's just him getting into the regular five-day routine.

"Every day is different. It's not like he's been out there like Doug (Davis) has or (Chris Capuano) on a five-day rotation throughout the year.

"It's his second start back after a (five-week) layoff. So that's to be expected.

"His stuff was good, his stuff was pretty crisp. There were just a couple pitches that he got back over the middle of the plate. They're good hitters and they hit it out of the park."

After Double-A call-up Derek Thompson surrendered three runs on six hits in his second major league start, Dodger relievers Giovanni Carrara (5-2), Yhency Brazoban and Eric Gagne (fourth save) limited the Brewers to only three hits over the final four innings.

Despite its limited offensive output late, Milwaukee - 1-3 on its current West Coast swing - brought the go-ahead run to the plate with two outs in the ninth. But Gagne fanned Geoff Jenkins on three pitches.

Sheets' struggles with his pitch location squandered some early run support that he is so often lacking.

Bill Hall's one-out double off Werth's glove in right and Junior Spivey's RBI single staked the Brewers to a 1-0 lead in the second - with Hall bumping into Perez in an unusual play while rounding third.

Wes Helms and Chad Moeller added RBI singles in the fourth before homers by Drew and Kent sparked the Dodgers.

Hall hot again: After going 1-for-9 in three games against the Padres, Bill Hall returned to the form Thursday that helped him hit .325 with four homers and 15 RBI in May.

Hall, who started at shortstop and batted fifth for only the second time this season, went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored to raise his average to .300.

"I'm trying to be more patient at the plate, trying to just let my ability take care of itself instead of trying to make everything happen," said Hall, Milwaukee's 2001 minor league player of the year. "So, I'm just trying to relax more and trying to get better pitches to hit."

"I'm starting to play a lot more so I can feel comfortable and not having a lot of days in between at-bats, which makes it tough on you. It's just getting comfortable and getting some hits. The confidence is high and I'm just having fun."

E-mail: tctsports@madison.com