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Nationals-Brewers Preview

Jul 29, 2009 - 4:52 AM By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO STATS Writer

Washington (31-68) at Milwaukee (49-50), 8:05 p.m. EDT

The Washington Nationals may own the worst record in baseball, but an offensive surge has put them in position for their longest winning streak in almost a year.

They'll attempt to win a fifth straight game by continuing to pound the Milwaukee Brewers' struggling pitchers on Wednesday night.

The Nationals (32-68) beat Milwaukee 8-3 on Tuesday for their fourth consecutive win following a 14-6 victory in the opener of this four-game series. They've collected 25 hits with six homers in the two wins over the Brewers (49-51).

"This is what I expected. I expected us to score a lot of runs and get good pitching and win a lot of games. We're getting really good pitching now and getting good defense," said Nationals first baseman Adam Dunn, who hit a 445-foot homer that left Miller Park on Tuesday. "As long as we do that, we'll be in every game."

Washington is hitting .342 with nine homers while outscoring opponents 38-12 during its winning streak. The club hasn't won five in a row since a seven-game run Aug. 26-Sept. 1.

"We're feeling that this is what we could've been doing all along. We've been playing good baseball here in the last week," said Nationals interim manager Jim Riggleman, who is 6-7 since taking over at the All-Star break for the fired Manny Acta. "It's hard to play aerospace ball and have everything going your way. Nothing went our way early."

The Nationals now turn to Garrett Mock (0-4, 7.06 ERA), who last won during last year's seven-game winning streak.

Mock threw an inning of relief to earn the victory in an 8-4 win over Atlanta on Aug. 31. Since then, he's 0-4 with a 5.05 ERA in 29 games - two starts - while making four trips to and from Triple-A Syracuse.

The right-hander's two starts in that span have come since he was recalled from the minors on July 15. He's lost both of those outings, allowing 12 runs - seven earned - and 17 hits in 8 2-3 innings.

Mock was shaky again Friday, surrendering five runs and nine hits while committing an error in 5 1-3 innings of a 6-2 loss to San Diego.

Milwaukee is 7-16 in July after entering this month with a two-game lead in the NL Central. That stretch has dropped the team into fourth place, 4 1/2 games behind division-leading St. Louis.

The Brewers have lost seven of their last nine, with most of the problems stemming from a pitching staff that has a 6.81 ERA in that span. Their rotation is 2-4 with a 6.89 ERA while serving up a .326 batting average with 10 homers in those nine contests.

"As bad as we've played we're still not too far out," Brewers right fielder Corey Hart said. "We've just got to try to figure it out before it spirals down too much."

Milwaukee will give the ball to Manny Parra (4-8, 6.42), who is tied with Jeff Suppan for the team lead in losses while matching his total from all of last year.

The left-hander is 1-4 with an 8.47 ERA in his last eight starts after winning his previous three with a 3.50 ERA.

Parra's rough stretch continued Friday, as he allowed four runs and 10 hits with three walks on 106 pitches over five innings before leaving without a decision in a 9-4 loss to Atlanta.

Parra has no record and a 5.56 ERA in two starts against Washington.