Brewers 8, Phillies 5
PHILADELPHIA -- Jonathan Lucroy went 5 for 5 with two homers and four RBIs on Friday night as the Milwaukee Brewers snapped a six-game losing streak with an 8-5 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
The five hits were a career high for the fourth-year catcher, who raised his average from .229 to .253. The homers were his fourth and fifth of the season. Both were solo shots, off Cole Hamels (1-9) in the fifth and reliever Mike Adams in the ninth.
Milwaukee had 14 hits, three by Yuniesky Betancourt and two each by Ryan Braun and Noirchika Aoki. The run total was the Brewers' highest in their last 28 games. They had last exceeded it in a 12-8 victory over Pittsburgh on April 30.
The barrage enabled Yovani Gallardo (4-5) to end his four-game losing streak. Gallardo worked 5 2/3 innings and allowed five runs and six hits. He struck out six, walked three and gave up three home runs, two by Domonic Brown.
Four relievers combined for 3 1/3 perfect innings, with Francisco Rodriguez pitching the ninth for his second save.
Hamels' career-worst losing streak was extended to six games. Hamels, who went 17-6 last year, allowed 12 hits and seven runs (six earned) in five innings. He struck out three and didn't walk a batter.
The Phillies had scored only 29 runs in Hamels' first 11 starts, 20 in his losses, but offense was not the problem against the Brewers. Besides Brown's two homers -- he now has 15 this season -- Jimmy Rollins hit a solo shot for Philadelphia.
In the first inning, Brown hit a three-run homer on a 3-0 fastball from Gallardo, staking Hamels to his first lead since April 7, his second start of the season. It was Brown's 12th home run in May and sixth in his last five games.
The Brewers cut it to 3-2 in the second when Lucroy drove in a run with a double off the right-field wall - on a misplayed ball by Phillies outfielder Delmon Young -- and an infield bouncer by Jeff Bianchi.
Milwaukee then took the lead by scoring four times in the third. After loading the bases on an infield hit, error and bloop single, Aramis Ramirez drove in a run with a broken-bat single. Carlos Gomez followed with a sacrifice fly, and Lucroy and Betancourt added RBI singles. Betancourt's hit was a liner off Hamels' glove that trickled to the right of the mound.
Rollins homered in the third, his fourth of the season. But Lucroy gave the Brewers a 7-4 lead when he led off the fifth with his fourth homer of the year. It came on an 0-2 pitch from Hamels, an 89 mph cut fastball.
NOTES: Before the game, the Phillies released RHP Chad Durbin and recalled LHP Joe Savery from Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Savery, who pitched a scoreless inning in his lone appearance for the Phils earlier this season, was 3-1 with a 4.03 ERA in 18 games for the IronPigs. ... Milwaukee LHP Chris Narveson, on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained left middle finger, began a rehab assignment on Thursday night by pitching two scoreless innings for Triple-A Nashville against Iowa. Narveson allowed one hit and struck out one. ... Andrew Bynum, the Sixers' would-be center, was in the crowd. Bynum, acquired in a four-team trade last August, missed the entire season with knee problems. He becomes a free agent on July 1.
