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Sheets outduels Willis; Hardy homers in Brewers win

Jun 3, 2007 - 11:39 PM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Ben Sheets pitched six scoreless innings and outdueled Dontrelle Willis as the Milwaukee Brewers posted a 3-0 victory over the Florida Marlins on Sunday to take three off our in the weekend series.

Prince Fielder, J.J. Hardy and Johnny Estrada drove in runs for the Brewers, who won a series for the first time in their last seven.

The National League Central Division-leading Brewers' last series win was a three-game sweep over the Washington Nationals at home May 7-9.

"It was a big series win, especially right before the Cubbies come," said Hardy, referring to a three-game series with the Chicago Cubs that starts Monday.

Sheets (6-3) allowed seven hits and a walk and struck out seven to record his fourth win in his last five starts.

"It was a good day," Sheets said. "I was working hard. It was tough work. They are good hitters. I'm on a pretty good roll, but we won a series and hopefully that carries over for us and we get on a series roll again."

Sheets left the game after just six innings do to fatigue. He had thrown 99 pitches, including 69 strikes.

"I can count on one hand being gassed, today was one of them," Sheets said. "When they shut the (outfield) panels, it was stiff and muggy in here. For the few innings it was shut, it took its toll. Somedays you get out of it no problem if you have easy innings, but none of my innings were easy."

Carlos Villanueva worked the seventh, Derrick Turnbow logged the eighth and Francisco Cordero pitched a perfect ninth for his 21st save in as many chances this season.

"It was really good pitching all the way around," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "Benny gave us six strong innings, the bullpen was great, and we beat a pretty good pitcher in Willis."

The Marlins had runners in scoring position in every inning from the second through eighth but could not scratch out a run.

"You've got to give credit to them to, making the right pitch at the right time in big situations," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said.

Sheets worked just one 1-2-3 inning, but managed to keep the Marlins off the scoreboard. In the fourth, he allowed consecutive line-drive singles to Miguel Cabrera and Josh Willingham to lead off the inning, and then retired the next three batters on fly balls.

"Sheets was great today," Willis said. "A game like that, everything fell their way. We had him on the ropes a couple of times and he was able to pitch out of it. That's a sign of a guy that can deal with adversity. I feel like I'm that same guy. I really like his resilience. I've always been a fan of his."

Since the Brewers swept the Nationals, Sheets has won four times, equaling the same number of wins from the rest of the Brewers staff.

"Benny's always been our stopper," Yost said. "He's always been that guy that's our No. 1 guy."

Corey Hart led off the Brewers half of the first inning with a walked and eventually scored on Fielder's RBI single to right.

Rookie Ryan Braun led off the third with a double, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a one-out single to left by Estrada.

"It wasn't Dontrelle's best, but he battled," Gonzalez said. "A couple ground balls right at people, and we'd still be playing."

Hardy greeted Florida reliever Henry Owens with his 16th home run of the season in the seventh. Hardy said it was just the second home run of his professional career that he could remember going to right field, and first this season.

"The (opposite field) power surprises me," Hardy said. "I don't know where that came from. They've been throwing the ball away a lot and that's all I can do (with the pitch). I don't know how that happened."

Willis (7-4) struggled all afternoon, yielding seven hits, six walks and two runs in six innings. He did not strike out a batter for the first time this season.

"Today, I didn't feel like I was losing any confidence," Willis said. "I felt if I could make a pitch I could get out of it, especially in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings when I slowed the game down."