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Reeling Brewers hope to bounce back against Padres

Sep 5, 2008 - 10:27 AM San Diego (54-86) at Milwaukee (80-60) 8:05 p.m. EDT

MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Milwaukee Brewers manager Ned Yost refuses to panic. However, if the Brewers end up as one of the odd teams out in the National League playoff race, they can blame a dismal September.

Milwaukee will try to snap a four-game losing skid as they face the lowly San Diego Padres on Friday.

"You feel like you have to win every single game this time of year, but you don't worry about it," Yost said to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

After being swept by the New York Mets, the Brewers saw four games against the NL West's worst club as a free pass to the winning track. Now, with a 5-2 loss in the opener, they are frantically finding a way to stay ahead in the wild-card hunt.

Milwaukee is four games ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies (76-64) in that race. But after this series and three games against the Cincinnati Reds, it faces the Phillies and Chicago Cubs (85-55) in a crucial seven-game stretch.

CC Sabathia (9-0, 1.43 ERA) takes the mound hoping to take advantage of a dismal lineup and continue his dominance since being traded by the Cleveland Indians prior to the non-waiver trading deadline on July 7.

The imposing lefthander has six complete games in 11 starts and is coming off one of the best outings of his career in which he surrendered one controversial hit against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The only hit the reigning American League Cy Young winner allowed came on a check-swing single he misplayed. The play was ruled a hit, but the Brewers appealed to a scoring review committee to have it changed to an error and give Sabathia his first no-hitter. The committee upheld the original ruling on Wednesday.

The Brewers haven't won since, bringing back haunting memories of last season when they squandered an 8 1/2-game lead in the division before missing the playoffs.

Josh Greer (1-0, 3.60) will counter for San Diego in his second major league start. On Saturday, the 25-year-old righthander yielded two runs and five hits in five innings en route to beating the Colorado Rockies.