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Fielder's homer lifts Brewers past Diamondbacks

Jun 3, 2008 - 5:06 AM By David Cotey PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Prince Fielder and the Milwaukee Brewers are heating up.

Fielder's solo home run in the bottom of the eighth inning gave the Brewers a 4-3 come-from-behind victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Miller Park on Monday.

Fielder now has three home runs in his last four games after hitting just one in his previous 18 for the Brewers, who have won eight of their last 10 games including four in a row.

"I'm just trying to put the swing I like to take on it and not try to manipulate it," Fielder said. "Sometimes you try to create a base hit and try to do something different instead of putting a good swing on it."

Guillermo Mota (2-3) pitched a scoreless eighth inning to earn the win and Salomon Torres worked around a hit, a walk and two throwing errors in the ninth for his sixth save. He struck out Stephen Drew looking with the bases loaded to end the game.

"The last guy I felt good and the crowd got me going and I stuck one in there," Torres said. "I tried to be as calm as I could and not get ahead of myself."

Fielder led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a blast to left-center field off lefthanded reliever Doug Slaten (0-2) as the Brewers took the lead for the first time.

"I've faced (lefthanders) since high school. It's not anything new," Fielder said. "They get basically paid to get one guy out. That's me. Most of the time they'll get you out, because that's what they get paid to do. Otherwise, they wouldn't be here. I just try to put a good swing on the ball and see what happens."

With a 3-1 lead, Arizona starter Doug Davis was cruising until the bottom of the seventh when the Diamondbacks' defense came unraveled. The crafty lefthander gave up a single to Bill Hall and walked J.J. Hardy before being lifted for reliever Chad Qualls, who threw wildly to first after fielding Jason Kendall's sacrifice bunt attempt.

With the bases loaded, pinch-hitter Gabe Kapler hit a chopper to third baseman Mark Reynolds, whose throw home eluded catcher Chris Snyder and allowed both Hall and Hardy to score. Qualls eventually got out of the frame without further damage.

"(Davis) pitched great. He did his job," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said. "Chad comes in and does his job; we just didn't play defense tonight. They are plays we should make. We have to get some outs."

Davis rebounded from a rocky outing his last time out in which he allowed six runs and nine hits in five innings. This time, he allowed three runs - one earned - on six hits in six innings.

"It's frustrating for everybody," Davis said of the errors. "Defense wins games and errors will cost you all year long. Ninety-nine percent of the time, we make those. This is the one percent that won't happen again."

Brewers starter Jeff Suppan could not duplicate the eight scoreless innings he threw five days earlier against the Atlanta Braves, but was effective, allowing three runs on seven hits with six strikeouts in seven innings.

"He didn't have his best stuff but he found a way to get us through seven innings and keep us in the game," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "It was a real gutsy, competitive effort on his part."

Snyder knocked in a pair and hit a home run for the Diamondbacks, who have lost six of eight.