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Brewers begin set with D'Backs at Miller Park

Jul 4, 2011 - 2:42 PM (Sports Network) - With plenty of starters named for next week's All-Star Game, the Brewers will eventually get a chance for a bit of revenge against the American League.

First they will try to get on track against another equally-struggling National League resident as Milwaukee opens a three-game series this afternoon with the Arizona Diamondbacks at Miller Park.

The Brewers return home after dropping five of six on an interleague road trip versus the Yankees and Twins. Milwaukee rallied from seven runs down to take Saturday's meeting, but blew a 6-1 advantage of its own on Sunday in an eventual 9-7 defeat.

Mark Kotsay hit a solo homer and added a two-run triple, but also had a costly error during a four-run seventh inning for the Brewers. Kameron Loe was charged with two runs -- one earned -- to take the loss in relief after starter Zack Greinke gave up five runs, four of those earned, over six innings.

"I think the balls were hit too hard for me to say that I pitched well. I know they were only singles, but I got the ball up a little bit. I'm supposed to come in and get an out there and I didn't do the job," said Loe.

Rickie Weeks hit a solo homer and was one of three Milwaukee players named to the NL's starting lineup for next week's All-Star Game in Arizona. He will be joined by Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, who sat out Sunday's game with a strained left calf to put his career-high 22-game hitting streak on hold.

The Brewers, who are tied with the Cardinals for first place in the NL Central, will hope that Shaun Marcum's left hip holds up today as he is set to make his scheduled start.

Marcum had pitched in just four total innings over two starts due to his nagging injury prior to a five-frame outing versus the Yankees on Wednesday. The right-hander suffered a loss, though, giving up four runs on five hits and three walks to fall to 7-3 with a 3.16 earned run average in 17 starts this season.

Despite the rough outing, Marcum insisted afterwards he was healthy.

"Everything feels good," Marcum told Milwaukee's website. "Hip's good, arm's good, body is good. I should be ready to go for my next one. I didn't realize I had 100 pitches until they pulled me out of the game."

The 29-year-old Marcum has faced the Diamondbacks just once before, getting a win on May 23 of last year with Toronto despite allowing three runs over just five innings. He also logged eight strikeouts in the outing.

Streaking righty Daniel Hudson starts this afternoon for the Diamondbacks.

A winner of six straight decisions in a nine-start span, Hudson has allowed two earned runs or less in six of those games. He had won three straight starts until getting a no-decision versus Cleveland on Tuesday, yielding two runs on six hits over eight innings with five strikeouts. Arizona did win the game, 6-4, and has prevailed in eight of Hudson's last nine starts.

The 24-year-old improved to 9-5 with a 3.49 ERA in 17 starts this season and will face the Brewers for the second time in his career. Hudson faced them back on Aug. 11 and got the win, yielding two runs -- on solo homers by Fielder and Casey McGehee -- over seven innings.

Hudson will try to get the Diamondbacks on the winning track after they lost for the sixth time in eight games on Sunday with a 7-2 setback to the Athletics. Arizona is three games behind San Francisco for the top spot in the NL West.

Ian Kennedy was denied an All-Star berth on Sunday (he is one of five candidates in the Final Vote competition) and didn't have a great day on the mound either. He was drilled for seven runs on 10 hits over 5 2/3 innings.

Xavier Nady drove in an early run, while All-Star Justin Upton had a double and scored a run.

"We got outpitched, we got outplayed," Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said. "We only gave up a couple home runs, but give Oakland credit, they put the bat on the ball.

The Diamondbacks lost two of three at Oakland in the first leg of a 10-game road trip. They won three of four at Milwaukee last season, but have lost eight of the past 11 meetings overall.