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Brewers-Diamondbacks Preview

Sep 10, 2009 - 8:04 PM By DAN PIERINGER STATS Writer

Milwaukee (66-73) at Arizona (62-79), 9:40 p.m. EDT

Neither the Milwaukee Brewers nor the Arizona Diamondbacks will be playing deep into October. Both teams' offenses are performing like they're not going to the playoffs.

The Brewers and Diamondbacks look to break out of their respective slumps at the plate Friday night in Phoenix.

Milwaukee (66-73) and Arizona (62-79) have each dropped seven of nine in September. The Brewers are batting .195 and averaging 2.6 runs during that slump, and the Diamondbacks are hitting .226 and scoring 3.2 runs per game.

Milwaukee's struggles continued Wednesday against St. Louis. The Brewers couldn't solve Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright and finished with six hits in a 5-1 defeat that capped a 1-5 homestand on which they scored more than two runs once.

"We've just seen some pretty good pitching," manager Ken Macha said.

The Diamondbacks didn't break out at the plate in their last game either, but they pulled out a 4-3 victory over NL West-leading Los Angeles on Mark Reynolds' bases-loaded walk in the ninth inning.

Reynolds, leading the majors by a wide margin with 190 strikeouts, fouled off two pitches with two strikes before taking the walk.

"I was just trying to put the ball in play," said Reynolds, batting .147 with 17 strikeouts over his last 10 games. "I just fouled off some tough pitches and was able to work a good AB."

The Diamondbacks' first win in seven games overshadowed the fact that they went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position.

"Man, it feels good to come out on top, especially with as many execution issues we had early in the game," manager A.J. Hinch told the team's official Web site.

Reynolds is 2 for 5 with a double in his career against Braden Looper (11-6, 4.77 ERA), who will take the mound for Milwaukee in the opener of this three-game series Friday.

The right-hander held San Francisco to one run in seven innings of a 2-1, 12-inning victory Sunday. He's 0-1 with a 7.16 ERA in three career starts against the Diamondbacks.

Arizona will counter with Doug Davis (7-12, 3.81). The left-hander has delivered eight quality starts in his last nine outings, including Saturday at Colorado. He gave up three runs in six innings but didn't get much help from his offense, suffering the 4-1 defeat.

Davis is 1-1 with a 5.49 ERA in four career starts against Milwaukee, the team with which he spent three-plus seasons before being traded to Arizona in 2006.

These teams split a four-game series in Milwaukee from April 30-May 3, their only previous matchups this season. Arizona totaled 13 runs while Milwaukee managed 11.

Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder hopes to spark the offense as he tries to break the franchise's single-season RBI record. He's at 125, one shy of the mark set by Cecil Cooper in 1983.

"It's an honor to be mentioned with players like that," Fielder told the Brewers' official Web site. "Especially Coop, because he was a great player and a great first baseman for this organization. When you accomplish something like that, it's really cool to do."