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Phillies win 4-2, complete road sweep of Brewers

May 17, 2010 - 5:01 AM By CHRIS JENKINS AP Sports Writer

MILWAUKEE(AP) -- The Philadelphia Phillies became the latest team to make itself feel right at home at Miller Park.

Cole Hamels pitched into the seventh inning despite giving up back-to-back homers and smacked an RBI double, and the Phillies beat the Brewers 4-2 to complete a road sweep Sunday night.

"It's a good series for us," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "Things are not going their way right now."

About the only thing going the Brewers' way is that their weeklong homestand of horrors is over.

The Brewers were coming off a sweep by Atlanta earlier this week, losing all six games on their current homestand and eight straight overall at home.

Milwaukee now is a miserable 4-14 at Miller Park, and mercifully hits the road for a week.

Will a change of scenery help?

"I guess," pitcher Dave Bush said. "It can't be any worse than it has been on this homestand."

It's not a question of home or away for Brewers manager Ken Macha, who just wants to see his team play better baseball.

"That question's getting tired," Macha said, straining to explain why his team has been so bad at Miller Park.

Hamels (4-2) held the Brewers scoreless until Casey McGehee's two-out homer in the sixth. Corey Hart - who missed hitting a grand slam by only a few feet in the first inning - followed with a home run of his own, cutting the Phillies lead to 3-2.

But that was all the Brewers could muster off Hamels, who gave up six hits with three walks and three strikeouts in 6 2-3 innings.

Hamels has added a cutter to his pitching repertoire, and said he's getting closer to mastering it.

"I'm still learning when to throw it and how to throw it," Hamels said. "It's something that's (based on) feel. It took me a year or two years to learn how to get the feel of the changeup. It's just going to be something to get the feel of the curveball. I didn't feel I was in good situations to throw it as much. A lot of their guys can actually hit the curveball. I had to be aggressive with the rest of the pitches."

With pressure mounting on a team that was expected to contend for the playoffs, Macha is beginning to get questions about the possibility of some kind of shake-up in the team's coaching staff - and his own long-term job security.

"When it's all said and done, I know that I've done the best job I can do," Macha said. "Everybody would like to continue to work, sure. But I know that I've put everything I could into this job. That's all I can do."

Players said placing blame on the manager is misguided.

"He's trying to keep us all together and we're all fighting," McGehee said.

Leading 3-2 in the eighth, the Phillies picked up another run when Chase Utley struck out on a ball in the dirt - but the ball got away from catcher Gregg Zaun, allowing Utley to run to first and Shane Victorino to score from third base. The pitch by Brewers reliever Carlos Villanueva was ruled a wild pitch.

Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder both reached base to begin the bottom half, but McGehee hit into a double play and Hart grounded out.

J.C. Romero pitched the ninth for his first save of the season.

"That's a great team on the other side but we came out with three wins," Romero said. "Everybody is pulling and going in the right direction, and everybody is pulling in the same direction. This is just one step."

It was a serviceable start on short notice for Bush (1-4), whose turn in the rotation was moved up when scheduled starter Doug Davis was scratched earlier in the day.

Davis has been diagnosed with pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane surrounding the heart. It's believed to be a mild case, and Davis hopes to return in two weeks. His condition is not related to his 2008 bout with thyroid cancer.

NOTES: Brewers CF Carlos Gomez will begin a minor league rehabilitation assignment for his strained left rotator cuff this week and is expected to be ready in time for next weekend's series against his former team, the Minnesota Twins. ... Milwaukee's Rickie Weeks was charged with a pair of errors. ... The Brewers hadn't lost eight straight at home since 1996, when they lost nine in a row.