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Brewers-Pirates Preview

Aug 18, 2009 - 4:30 AM By ANTHONY GIORNALISTA STATS Senior Writer

Milwaukee (58-59) at Pittsburgh (46-70), 7:05 p.m. EDT

The Milwaukee Brewers' lineup has done an outstanding job compensating for Manny Parra's poor efforts. Even a matchup with the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates might be too much for the struggling starter to handle.

With their playoff chances diminishing, the Brewers look to carry Parra to his fifth straight win Tuesday night in a matchup with a Pirates team that ended a slump with an impressive performance.

A year after winning the NL wild card for its first postseason appearance in 26 years, Milwaukee's chances of making another run appear bleak. The Brewers (58-60) trail Colorado by seven games for the wild card, which seems to be their best shot at making the playoffs.

The latest blow to Milwaukee's chances was in the opener of this three-game series, losing 9-5 on Monday night. It was the first win in nine home games for Pittsburgh (47-70), which scored a combined four runs in its previous four contests.

Parra (8-8, 6.44 ERA) won his only start versus the Pirates, striking out six in 5 2-3 scoreless innings as the Brewers won 7-2 on May 20, 2008, but he has given Milwaukee little reason to expect another effective outing.

The Brewers have given Parra six runs or more to work with in each of his last four outings, helping the left-hander win all of those starts despite posting a 6.48 ERA.

Milwaukee has lost four of seven even though it has at least 10 hits in all of those contests, averaging 7.1 runs during that stretch.

"You've got to compliment the position players," Brewers manager Ken Macha said. "They've been doing well, they've been fighting back and they're scrapping regardless of what the score is. ... Hopefully we'll get them some good starts here."

Parra allowed six runs and a season-high 13 hits in 5 2-3 innings of Milwaukee's 12-9 win over San Diego on Thursday.

He'll face a Pittsburgh lineup that failed to homer during a four-game losing streak before Andy LaRoche, Garrett Jones and Ronny Cedeno all went deep in beating Milwaukee for the third time in the teams' last four meetings.

Eight of the Pirates' nine starters had hits, and they went 5 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

"The guys realize we haven't scored runs ... and when they've gotten a chance with guys on base, they want to be the guy who comes through," Pittsburgh manager John Russell said. "Nobody's really been relaxing."

Jones' homer was his 13th but only his second with a runner on, and the first in eight games. The right fielder was promoted from Triple-A Indianapolis on June 30, but he leads all rookies in home runs.

Jones is batting .292 in 39 games and is 7 for 15 with three homers against the Brewers.

The Pirates will try to give Ross Ohlendorf (10-8, 4.30) some support. Ohlendorf, set to take his turn in the Pirates' rotation, is 4-0 with a 1.93 ERA in his last six starts at home and 3-1 with a 3.07 ERA in his last five outings overall.

The right-hander yielded three runs in six innings of Pittsburgh's 7-3 win at Colorado last Tuesday.

In his only start against the Brewers, Ohlendorf gave up two runs in five innings to earn a win in an 8-3 Pirates victory July 20.