Arizona starter Yusmeiro Petit gave up three runs in the D'backs loss to Milwaukee on Sunday.
MILWAUKEE – It was a series in which every game seemed to be decided by one play, one hit or one inning.
And considering the way the Arizona Diamondbacks have played in this ballpark in recent seasons, there was a small sense of satisfaction to leave Miller Park with a four-game split after their 4-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday afternoon.
“It’s a place that’s been tough on us, so in that respect it’s good,” manager Bob Melvin said. “I guess looking at it coming in, the way we played here was OK. But we certainly would have liked to have won (Sunday).”
The Diamondbacks rallied from a 3-0 deficit to tie the score with home runs in the seventh inning by Mark Reynolds, Justin Upton and Miguel Montero, but the Brewers scratched across a run in the eighth inning against relievers Juan Gutierrez and Tony Peña.
After a single by Sabino High School grad J.J. Hardy, which snapped an 0-for-14 skid, and a walk to Prince Fielder with one out, Peña entered the game and got Mike Cameron to hit a bloop to right field.
Upton did not get a good break and dived for it but had to play the ball on the hop, loading the bases.
“I didn’t see it that well off the bat, but it’s still a tough ball to get to,” he said. “It’s one of those things in baseball. You cannot hit it hard and still get a hit. I’ve reaped the benefits of that myself.”
That brought up Chris Duffy, who hit a hard ground ball that second baseman Felipe Lopez had to lunge to his left to field, allowing the run to score.
“(This series was about) getting the little breaks here and there,” Upton said.
“Both teams played well. But we came up short twice, and so did they.”
Adding salt to the wound for the Diamondbacks bullpen was an injury to right-hander Tom Gordon, who strained his left hamstring while covering home plate in the sixth inning.
The Brewers scored three times off Diamondbacks starter Yusmeiro Petit, hitting a pair of homers off the right-hander in the second inning and adding another run in the third.
Petit has a 7.84 ERA in 20 1/2 innings, and he did not pitch so well as to quiet speculation that the club might pull him from the rotation before his next start.
Brewers closer Trevor Hoffman, an ex-Arizona Wildcat, pitched a scoreless ninth, striking out two, to convert his seventh consecutive save opportunity against the Diamondbacks.