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Brewers salvage finale against Twins

Jun 15, 2008 - 10:22 PM By J.R. Radcliffe PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

MILWAUKEE (Ticker) - Mike Cameron blasted a go-ahead home run in the sixth inning and the Milwaukee Brewers salvaged their interleague series with the Minnesota Twins by holding on for a 4-2 victory Sunday.

The rally made a winner of Brewers starter Seth McClung (4-3), a converted reliever who recorded his third straight quality start. McClung faced the minimum over the first 4 2/3 innings, permitting just one baserunner in the process, before Jason Kubel's home run tied the game at 1-1.

McClung allowed two runs on four hits in six innings, improving to 2-1 with a 2.50 ERA over his last three outings.

"The coaching staff here has really helped me kind of find myself," said McClung, who posted ERAs well over 6.00 in two seasons with Tampa Bay before joining the Brewers last year. "Playing in this organization has really allowed me to grow. My mechanics have always been fine. It's really just a mentality or mind-set, or really just not trying to overthrow that's gotten me where I am right now."

McClung has been a revelation for a team missing starter Yovani Gallardo, likely out for the year after an ACL tear sustained earlier this season. Since joining the rotation from the long relief role, McClung has delivered strong efforts in four out of five starts.

"I feel for anybody who's in the long man role," McClung said. "You go seven days, nine days, three days, two days, back-to-back. ... the consistency for me has come with the maturity, and I guess you can attribute it to the five-day routine as well."

Manager Ned Yost was impressed with McClung's evolution as well.

"He's been very impressive because he's changed his style a little bit from anything we've ever seen from him in the pen," Yost said. "He's on the attack, he's working fast, he's trying to pitch to contact with good stuff, and he's doing it. He doesn't have a game plan per se, except work fast and stay with (catcher) Jason Kendall."

The blast by Cameron was one of the few blemishes against Twins starter Scott Baker (2-2), who struck out nine batters over six innings. The righthander ran into trouble when he walked Russell Branyan on four pitches leading off the sixth and Cameron hit his 10th home run two pitches later to turn a one-run deficit into a 3-2 lead.

Cameron also singled in the eighth and scored on Jason Kendall's RBI single to add insurance.

"It was good to just be involved and do something positive," said Cameron, who entered the game with a .216 average. "Home runs come with just putting a good swing on a baseball. I think that's more important than anything, to just get a chance to go out there and improve and get myself back where I need to be to be productive."

The Brewers struck first in the opening frame, with Branyan's RBI base hit marking the third single of the inning against Baker, but the young Twins hurler settled thereafter.

Baker struck out five straight batters at one point and became the first pitcher in club history to punch out four batters in one inning.

Prince Fielder reached on a third-strike wild pitch with one out in the third, and Baker struck out Ryan Braun, Branyan and Mike Cameron in the same inning to tie the major league record held by several players.

Alexi Casilla's sacrifice fly in the sixth gave the Twins a brief lead at 2-1, but they fell short of a series sweep and finished 3-7 on their long road trip.

"We didn't get that many opportunities," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Baker, we got a lead for him and then a four-pitch walk and a homer to give it back up ... that's never a good thing. It's disappointing we had a chance to finish off the series and just didn't get there. We'll move on. Winning two out of three, that's a start."

Gardenhire was ejected in the eighth inning by home plate umpire Brian Runge after Brendan Harris was controversially called out on strikes. Runge declined Harris' request for time after two quick strikes, and Harris had his head down when strike three sailed into Kendall's mitt, prompting the argument.

"I was in shock," Gardenhire said. "I honestly couldn't believe what I saw. For one thing, my guy's got his head right next to home plate and the ball goes right by him. The speed-up stuff, that's good and fine, but if he gets hit in the head there with a pitch not looking at it, what do we do then? There has to be a little common sense sometimes. I understand they're forced to do those things, but that's wrong."

"I said, 'Hey, can you give me a second?'" Harris said. "The ump stood up a little bit, so I almost thought I had it. I saw Kendall hold the glove up, I thought he might be changing the ball. He said, 'I can't give you time all day.' I had seen five pitches all day and swung at three of them. In the eighth, it was like an hour and 50 minutes (gone by), has the game really been dragging? How fast do we want this game to go?"

Mota struck out all three batters in the inning, and Salomon Torres worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his eighth save.