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Free-falling Brewers hope to avoid sweep

Sep 21, 2008 - 7:08 AM Milwaukee (84-71) at Cincinnati (72-82) 1:15 pm. EDT

CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- The Milwaukee Brewers can't seem to snap out of their doldrums, even CC Sabathia couldn't help. The Brewers aim to rebound from yet another tough loss on Sunday and avoid being swept by the Cincinnati Reds.

Milwaukee held a 5 1/2-game lead in the wild-card scramble a month ago, but has lost three straight and 15 of 19 and trails the New York Mets (86-68) by 2 1/2 games with seven games to play.

Milwaukee is coming off one of its more frustrating losses. Pitcher Micah Owings blooped a go-ahead two-run single off Sabathia as the Reds posted a 4-3 victory on Saturday.

It's frustrating," said Sabathia, who lost his second straight start. "Being ahead four or five games and now being down two or three. But there is a lot of baseball left."

The Brewers had only themselves to blame, as they left 19 runners on base. One person who has to redeem himself the most is Prince Fielder, who committed a costly error and struck out with the bases loaded in the ninth.

Fielder will try and rebound against Bronson Arroyo (15-10, 4.57 ERA), who is unbeaten in his last six starts. Arroyo is 5-0 with an 1.24 ERA in that span. The righthander allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings of a 7-2 win over St. Louis on Tuesday.

Arroyo will look to lead the Reds to their seventh win in eight games.

Meanwhile, the Brewers were scheduled to have Ben Sheets on the mound. However, Sheets is out with an elbow injury and the start now goes to Seth McClung (5-6, 4.22). McClung tossed two innings of relief in Thursday's 7-6, 12-inning loss to Chicago. He has not started since July 21.