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Hardy homers twice as Brewers top D'Backs

Jul 2, 2008 - 6:03 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- J.J. Hardy hit a pair of home runs to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to an 8-6 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday.

Hardy connected for a two-run homer in the first inning to give Milwaukee a 2-0 lead. He added a solo shot in the second to put the Brewers on top 6-1.

"Pretty exciting for me," Hardy said. "Just hitting two homers my first two at bat in any game is pretty exciting, and yet it was off of Randy Johnson, who is one of the best pitchers ever, it was really exciting for me.

Both of Hardy's homers came off of Arizona starter Randy Johnson (4-7), who allowed seven runs and eight hits - including three homers - in 3 2/3 innings.

"Three in the first and three in the second, Joe Dillon with the big home run, J.J. (Hardy) with two homers," Milwaukee manager Ned Yost said. "It was nice to give us that leeway that we could get away with a few runs and a few missed pitches here and there, and still keep it going, the bullpen came in and did a nice job."

It was the shortest start of the season for Johnson, who lost his sixth straight and is mired in his longest losing streak since dropping eight straight from May 26-July 21, 1992, while he was

still with Seattle. The lefthander hasn't won since defeating Detroit on May 18.

"I think velocity is a luxury, I don't have the same velocity, but location is a necessity in pitching and I haven't had any of that of that," Johnson said. "Even my last start in Boston where I pitched fairly well, the two runs I gave up there, you look back and the location was back there, so its been a months worth of poor games and I'm very much aware of that, disappointed, anything good that comes out of a game, there's just not enough to built off of it, so I'm real disappointed obviously, it goes without saying."

Joe Dillon also homered for the Brewers - off of Johnson - as Milwaukee improved to 4-1 against Arizona in the last five meetings between the clubs.

Brewers started Jeff Suppan (5-6) was just a bit better than Johnson and picked up the win. Suppan allowed five runs and nine hits in five innings.

"There's different situations where you have to pitch accordingly, but with my game plan its really the same regardless of how many runs are scored," Suppan said. "I think tonight was basically an offensive game, and defensively they (Brewers) came out and made some incredible plays through out the whole entire game, so I thought overall it was a good team win."

Salomon Torres pitched the ninth for his 14th save in 16 chances.

Conor Jackson helped Arizona make a game of it after falling behind early. He had three hits, including a home run and three RBI.