2Jul/0810:22 PM

Brewers take another from Diamondbacks, 4-3

By Vince Marotta

Mike Cameron’s rbi single in the top of the 9th inning scored Russell Branyan and gave the Milwaukee Brewers another victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-3 at Chase Field.

The Diamondbacks led 2-0 after 5 innings, on an rbi single by Miguel Montero in the 2nd inning, and a run-scoring base hit by Chris Young in the 3rd. Starting in the 6th inning, the Brewers started to chip away. J.J. Hardy knocked in Jason Kendall with a base hit in the 6th to make it 2-1 D-Backs. In the 7th, Cameron drove in Gabe Kapler who had a big two-out triple off of Chad Qualls to tie the score at 2-2. The Brewers struck again in the 8th, and took their first lead when Rickie Weeks led off the inning with a solo blast off of Tony Pena.

Justin Upton tied the score for Arizona at 3, with a solo homer of his own leading off the 8th. Cameron then broke the tie in the 9th, handing the Diamondbacks another loss, and dropping them to 42-43 on the season. Branyan had reached base by way of an error on Mark Reynolds, who had replaced Chad Tracy at first base. It’s the first time the Diamondbacks have been under .500 since April 3rd, when a 3-2 loss at Cincinnati dropped them to 1-2 on the year.

The Diamondbacks have been making a practice of wasting good starting pitching this season, and Wednesday night was no exception. Yusmeiro Petit, filling in for the injured Micah Owings, and making his first start since the regular season finale last year, pitched very well. Petit went 6 innings, allowing 1 run and 2 hits while throwing 77 pitches. The bullpen trio of Qualls, Pena and Brandon Lyon, who took the loss, yielded 6 hits and 3 runs in 3 innings of work.

Lyon took the loss and drops to 2-3 on the season. Brewers reliever David Riske got the win, and upped his record to 1-1 this year. Salomon Torres got Chris Young to bounce into a 5-3 double play to end the game, and picked up his 15th save. The Brewers are 5-1 vs. Arizona this season.

MLB.com: Recap | Boxscore

Here’s some other viewpoints of the Brewers 4-3 win at Chase Field…

Brewers edge D-Backs again [Az Central]

D-Backs fall to Brewers, 4-3 [East Valley Tribune]

Brewers 4, Diamondbacks 3 [JS Online Live Blog]

The Dodgers beat Houston again, meaning the Diamondbacks lead in the National League West has shrunk to just 1 1/2 games. Its the smallest their division lead has been since April 8th. The series concludes tomorrow with Arizona’s Brandon Webb facing Milwaukee’s Manny Parra. First pitch will be thrown at 12:40. It’s a holiday weekend. You were cutting out of the office early anyway, right? That’s what I thought.