Nationals 4 - 6 Brewers
Final
  for this game

Greinke, Brewers close out set with Nationals

May 25, 2011 - 2:58 PM (Sports Network) - Recently arrived mound standout Zack Greinke can prolong the momentum with his new team today when the streaking Milwaukee Brewers play the Washington Nationals in the finale of a three-game series at Miller Park.

The hosts won their second of the series, fifth in a row and 10th game in 12 tries on Tuesday, when Jonathan Lucroy hit a two-run single in the eighth inning to lift Milwaukee to a 7-6 win.

The Brewers, who trailed 6-2 after three-plus innings, got two runs in each of their last two at-bats. Rickie Weeks hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning to get them within a run before Lucroy's hit put them ahead.

Closer John Axford worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth and hung on for his 13th save of the season. Mike McClendon (2-0) pitched two scoreless innings for the win.

The surge has allowed the Brewers to climb into a second-place tie in the National League's Central Division with Cincinnati, where they trail first- place St. Louis by 3 1/2 games.

Milwaukee is 18-6 this season at Miller Park.

Greinke, a former Cy Young winner in the American League with the Kansas City Royals, headed to the Brewers in the offseason as part of a six-player deal on Dec. 19 that sent four players to the Royals and also brought Yuniesky Betancourt to the NL.

His 2011 debut was delayed by an offseason rib injury, but he finally started in a Milwaukee uniform on May 4 and was on the short end of an 8-0 loss in Atlanta.

Three subsequent home starts have yielded three Milwaukee wins, including defeats of San Diego and Pittsburgh in which Greinke allowed seven runs on 11 hits in 11 innings.

He got a no-decision in a 7-6 defeat of Colorado last Friday after giving up four runs on eight hits in six innings.

In his lone career start against Washington, the Orlando, Fla. product threw seven scoreless innings while allowing three hits and no walks with five strikeouts.

The Nationals counter with veteran righty Jason Marquis, who's already won five games this season after being limited to just two wins over 13 starts in an injury-ravaged 2010 campaign.

The Manhasset, N.Y. native pitched to no-decisions in road starts at Florida and the New York Mets to begin the year, then reeled off five wins in a six- start stretch between April 17 and May 15, with the last victory over the Marlins on May 15.

He's pitched once since and got a no-decision in Washington's 17-5 interleague defeat of Baltimore, giving up eight hits and five runs in four innings.

Marquis's first win in the aforementioned 5-1 stretch came at home against Milwaukee and saw him get touched for nine hits and just two runs in seven innings of an 8-4 triumph.

In 21 career meetings with the Brewers, he is 6-9 with a 4.89 earned run average across 103 innings.

On Tuesday, Michael Morse hit his first career grand slam for the Nationals, but flied out with the bases loaded again in the ninth. Washington has lost four in a row and is 1-6 on an eight-game road trip.

The Nationals swept a three-game set in Washington from April 15-17 after Milwaukee took four of six matchups in the 2010 campaign.






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