Five errors help keep Brewers 2 games behind Cubs
MILWAUKEE -- Watching San Diego across the field might be the closest Milwaukee gets to seeing a playoff team.
The Brewers made 5 errors, their most in eight years, and Scott Hairston hit a tiebreaking, 3-run double to lead the Padres over Milwaukee 9-5 Thursday night.
While San Diego (88-71) maintained its 1-game lead in the NL wild-card race and stayed 1 game back of Arizona in the NL West, the Brewers (81-78) failed for the second straight day to take advantage of a Cubs loss. The Cubs (83-76) lead the NL Central by 2 games with just three games remaining.
Third baseman Ryan Braun made 3 errors for the bumbling Brewers, who haven't been to the playoffs since 1982, and first baseman Prince Fielder and left fielder Geoff Jenkins made 1 each. Milwaukee, which allowed 4 unearned runs, hadn't made 5 errors in a game since Aug. 1, 1999 against Montreal.
San Diego arrived in Milwaukee for its season-ending, four-game series at 6 a.m. after winning Wednesday night in San Francisco but didn't seem sleepy at all, taking a 4-0 lead in the third.
Padres starter Jack Cassel was chased after 4¿ innings as Milwaukee closed to 5-2. Joe Thatcher (2-1) relieved with the bases loaded and retired Fielder on a grounder, then pitched a perfect sixth.
Brewers rookie Yovani Gallardo (9-5) gave up 5 runs -- 3 earned -- and 5 hits in 5 innings.
Rickie Weeks homered twice for the Brewers, who led the NL Central by 8½ games in late June.
Before the game, the Brewers said Chris Capuano will start today instead of ace Ben Sheets, who has a hamstring injury.
San Diego went ahead in the third, when Brady Clark singled, Cassel's bunt stayed fair down the first-base line for his first career hit, Brian Giles singled to load the bases and Hairston doubled into the left-field corner. Hairston took third when Jenkins misplayed the ball, then scored on Kevin Kouzmanoff's groundout.
Weeks homered in the bottom half, a 440-foot-drive, but Fielder booted Josh Bard's leadoff grounder in the fourth, and Bard scored on Cassel's double-play grounder with the bases loaded for a 5-1 lead.
J.J. Hardy's RBI single chased Cassel in the fifth, Cla Meredith hit Braun with a pitch, and Thatcher came in to retire Fielder.
San Diego made it 9-2 in the seventh, when Hairston's sharp grounder bounced off Braun's glove for an RBI single;and after Adrian Gonzalez's sacrifice fly, Braun leapt and deflected Khalil Greene's 2run single
Weeks hit a two-run homer in the seventh off Doug Brocail, a drive that a leaping Clark couldn't hold at the center-field wall.