Brewers Down Marlins 3-2
MIAMI (CBS4) — Chris Volstad was in position to end his losing streak, and couldn't hold on.
Volstad yielded Prince Fielder's solo homer and Yuniesky Betancourt's tiebreaking RBI double in the seventh inning of the Florida Marlins' 3-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday night.
Florida left nine runners on base and went 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position. A night earlier, Florida stranded 11 runners in another one-run loss.
"We're not executing," manager Edwin Rodriguez said. "That wasn't only last night or tonight. We've been watching that for two months.
"Just put the ball in play — they have to be able to do that."
Florida failed to score despite putting runners on second and third with none out in the third. Yovani Gallardo escaped by retiring Emilio Bonifacio, Logan Morrison and Gaby Sanchez.
"That's unacceptable," Rodriguez said.
Gallardo (8-2) pitched six effective innings to win his sixth consecutive start and Milwaukee posted back-to-back wins in South Florida for the first time since April 10-11, 2007. The Brewers began the day with the fewest road wins in the National League, but improved to 11-19 away from Miller Park.
John Axford pitched the ninth for his 15th save in 17 opportunities. He struck out Bonifacio with a runner on third to end the game.
The Brewers trailed 2-1 before Fielder hit his 13th homer with one out in the seventh. The burly first baseman sent Volstad's 0-1 pitch into the seats in left-center.
Casey McGehee then flied out before Jonathan Lucroy singled off shortstop Bonifacio's glove. Betancourt followed with a double off the wall in left-center.
"(It) was tough letting it slip away in the seventh inning," Volstad said. "They're a good-hitting team."
Volstad (2-5) gave up six hits, struck out four and walked one in seven innings. He dropped to 0-4 with a 5.87 ERA in his last seven starts.
Sanchez hit a two-out RBI single in the first and the Marlins pushed across an unearned run in the sixth to take a 2-1 lead.
Sanchez opened with a single and took second on Greg Dobbs' grounder to first. Following Mike Stanton's groundout and a walk to John Buck, Omar Infante hit a grounder to third. McGehee had trouble backhanding the ball, then threw high to first for an error, allowing Infante to reach and Sanchez to score.
Nyjer Morgan hit Volstad's first pitch of the third into the right-field seats to tie it at 1. It was Morgan's first homer of the season.
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