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Sheets, homers lead Brewers over Astros

Jun 12, 2008 - 10:47 PM By Ted Dunnam PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

HOUSTON (Ticker) -- Ben Sheets had no problems with the balls flying out of Minute Maid Park, especially since they were coming off his teammates' bats.

Prince Fielder, Mike Cameron and Corey Hart each hit a home run during a five-run second inning, powering the Milwaukee Brewers to a 9-6 win over the Houston Astros on Thursday.

Sheets (7-1) pitched seven innings, allowing three runs and seven hits with nine strikeouts in winning for the third time in his last four starts.

"Me and Mikey (Rivera) got in a good groove out there," Sheets said. "I didn't feel I was finessing enough in the early innings.

"I always rear back and fire it. I was speeding up my tempo, maybe too much early on. My rhythm got better as I went on, but I felt strong the whole game."

The veteran righthander also continued a strong season on the road, improving to 5-0 with a 2.62 ERA in nine starts.

Fielder hit his 10th home run of the season leading off the second inning. Two batters later, Cameron followed with another solo blast, his ninth. After Mike Rivera singled and Sheets walked, leadoff hitter Hart crushed a three-run homer - his 10th - to right-center field for a 5-1 lead.

All three blasts came off Astros starter Brian Moehler (3-3), who gave up seven runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings.

"I just didn't execute. I left some pitches up," Moehler said. "I didn't use all my pitches. I felt fine, I just didn't pitch well."

Cameron, who also homered Wednesday, almost doesn't want to leave the hitter-friendly venue.

"I guess I wish I could play here as much as possible this year," Cameron said. "I wish we'd come here one more time.

"You'd like to feel like that everywhere you go. I just see the ball a little better. I just have some good history here."

Behind the slugging, the Brewers were able to supply Sheets with his most support on the road since a 10-7 victory at the Chicago Cubs on April 29.

"The guy on the mound (Sheets) ... he's difficult," Cameron said. "We were able to bring a few runs in for him."

Milwaukee manager Ned Yost was glad to have a battler in Sheets on the mound.

"He's just a competitor - he knows that he's good," Yost said. "No matter what the situation is, he always raises his game a little bit and understands what he's doing out there.

"He's not just out there firing. He makes adjustments."

The Brewers added two more runs in the fifth, with Russell Branyan lofting a sacrifice fly and Bill Hall getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded for a 7-3 score.

Houston trimmed the lead to 7-5 in the eighth when Mark Loretta followed Michael Bourn's infield single with a pinch-hit homer.

However, the Brewers answered with another home run, as Gabe Kapler belted a pinch-hit blast in the ninth, his fifth of the year. Milwaukee feasted on Houston pitching for nine home runs the final two games of the series.

Miguel Tejada and Darin Erstad added solo home runs for the Astros, who dropped two of three to the Brewers.

Houston slugger Lance Berkman, however, had a rare outing - going hitless in five at-bats.

"(Sheets) was good," he said. "He wasn't quite as dominant as he can be, but when he pitches he always does a good job.

"It's extremely rare for him to not at least keep his team in the game. But you score five or six runs, you should win. If you'd have told me that Ben Sheets was pitching and we were going to score five runs, I'd take that every time."