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Diamondbacks-Brewers Preview

May 1, 2009 - 5:10 AM By ALAN FERGUSON STATS Writer

Arizona (9-12) at Milwaukee (11-10), 8:05 p.m. EDT

Just about everything is going right lately for the Milwaukee Brewers. Manny Parra's record is a glaring exception.

The Brewers will try to win a season-best fifth straight and help their starting pitcher avoid a dubious career high when they continue a four-game home series with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.

A 4-1 victory in Thursday night's series opener was Milwaukee's eighth in the last nine games. Its lone loss in that span came with Parra on the mound.

Even with his best outing of the season, the Brewers' starter couldn't avoid a fourth straight defeat, tying his career-worst skid set July 25-Aug. 15 last season. After giving up at least three earned runs in his first three starts, Parra (0-4, 6.52 ERA) allowed only one over five innings in a hard-luck loss Sunday in Houston.

"I hate losing," he told the team's official Web site after the 3-2 defeat. "I'm tired of this - losing when I'm out there. It's just frustrating. It's difficult to try to take a positive out of this because you're losing."

One positive for the left-hander coming into Friday's start is his performances in two career starts against Arizona - both during last season's 10-8 finish. The 26-year-old allowed one run over 13 innings and was denied a second straight victory only when the Diamondbacks scored six runs in the ninth inning July 3.

If the Brewers can continue their late rallies, they might help Parra earn his first win and stay perfect versus Arizona.

Milwaukee (12-10) scored all four of its runs Thursday in the seventh after starter Jeff Suppan produced his longest - and best - performance this season, allowing one run over 6 1-3 innings. To extend the Brewers' home win streak over Arizona to five games, Rickie Weeks had a run-scoring single and Mike Cameron capped the inning with a two-run double among their three hits apiece.

In each of its four straight wins, Milwaukee has scored the winning run in the sixth inning or later.

"Just gritty," Cameron said. "That's a sign of a really good baseball team, and hopefully we can continue to come up (big) in those situations."

Inconsistent run production has hurt the Diamondbacks (9-13) as they have averaged 6.3 in their wins but 2.1 in their losses. Arizona's disparity has been especially telling over the last seven games with 22 runs in its three victories and eight in its four defeats.

The Diamondbacks scored their lone run Thursday on Felipe Lopez's leadoff homer. That lack of offense kept Max Scherzer from earning his first career win despite six shutout innings.

"It's just one of those things. That's the way baseball is," Scherzer told the team's official Web site. "I'm more concerned about the team winning than my first win. I'm more disappointed that the team lost."

Arizona will look to Jon Garland (2-1, 5.47) to help break their skid in Milwaukee. The right-hander won his only career start against the Brewers - for the Chicago White Sox - on July 17, 2000, allowing two runs and three hits over seven innings.