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Fielder powers Brewers to victory over Cubs

Apr 24, 2007 - 6:19 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- With a name that is associated with royalty, Prince Fielder showed the Chicago Cubs that Wrigley Field was his kingdom for a day.

Fielder homered twice as the Brewers overcame a four-run deficit to post a 5-4 victory in 12 innings over the Cubs in the first game of a three-game set.

Down, 4-2, in the eighth, the Brewers used Fielder's solo shot and an RBI single from Craig Counsell to tie the game at 4-4.

In the 12th inning, Fielder lofted another solo shot off rookie reliever Rocky Cherry (0-1) just over the fence in right to give the Brewers a 5-4 advantage.

"Since it was Rocky's debut, we had no film on him," Fielder said. "I was trying to watch what he threw to J.J. (Hardy), then I just took a couple of pitches to see a little more of what he had."

The righthander, who was just recalled from Class AAA Iowa earlier in the day to take the place of pitcher Wade Miller, gave up only the homer in taking the hard-luck loss in his major league debut.

"It was a slider that went back a little inside," Cherry said. "Then he turned on it and really hit it. The results weren't good."

Carlos Villanueva (1-0) allowed two hits with three walks and three strikeouts in four innings. Derrick Turnbow, who filled in for Francisco Cordero after the closer had pitched three of the past four days, gave up a leadoff single to Derrek Lee but set down the next three hitters to record his first save.

"When I came into the game, I walked my first guy," Villanueva said. "Then Ned (Brewers manager Ned Yost) came out and told me it was my game to win or lose, even if I had to go four innings. Ned made a great prediction."

"What a great job by Carlos Vilanueva to pitch his heart out when we where down to one pitcher," Yost said. "I told him it was his game to win or lose, hold them and we will get you a run. It took longer than I planned but we got the run."

Aramis Ramirez hit his 200th career home run and Lee had two RBI for the Cubs, who have dropped three of their last four games.

Chicago starter Carlos Zambrano struggled yet again, surrendering two runs and five hits with three walks and seven strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. The Cubs ace has a 6.91 ERA after five starts.

"You can point fingers at anybody," Zambrano said. "Sometimes the bullpen comes in and does the job and sometimes they don't. All you can do is give a little love, support each other and move on to the next step."

Milwaukee catcher Johnny Estrada left the game in the seventh inning with a left knee contusion after colliding with Fielder on a bunt single off the bat of rookie Felix Pie. He left the field under his own power and is day-to-day.

"All Johnny has is a little bruise and a minor hyperextension," Yost said. "He is fine and might play tomorrow (Tuesday)."