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Dec 2 '16, 05:35AM
PHOENIX -- The Milwaukee Brewers strung together quality at-bats, got solid pitching and held onto a lead for once. Roberto Osuna Blue Jays Jersey . Not a bad way to close out what had been a frustrating series -- or head into the All-Star break. Wily Peralta pitched seven effective innings, Logan Schafer homered and drove in two runs and the Milwaukee Brewers ended a four-game losing streak by beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-1 on Sunday. "I thought it was a really nice ballgame," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "After those last three, we obviously needed to come out with a win. A lot of good things happened." The Brewers spent the first half of the season struggling with injuries and consistency. Against Arizona, they had trouble holding leads in three frustrating games in the desert. Milwaukee prevented the sweep by roughing up Ian Kennedy (3-6) with a string of two-strike hits and a second straight strong outing by Peralta (7-9) The hitting came early: Four runs the first two innings against Kennedy. Carlos Gomez hit a two-run single in the first inning, Schafer drove in another run in the second with a sacrifice bunt and added a solo homer in the fifth. Peralta, coming off his first complete game shutout, effectively worked around base runners all day, and the bullpen held after he left, helping the Brewers end a six-game losing streak to the Diamondbacks. A nice finish to the first half for the Brewers with a much-needed break coming up. "Its great to close out the first half like this and hopefully we can keep it going after the break," Schafer said. "Weve had some guys banged up and these four days should be good for us to get ourselves back healthy." Swept by the Dodgers earlier in the week, Arizona responded with three impressive victories over Milwaukee. With a chance for their first sweep of the Brewers, the Diamondbacks fell flat, unable to bounce back after Kennedys shaky outing left him stuck on 49 career wins for the seventh straight start. Miguel Montero homered for the second straight game, but Arizona went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, failing to capitalize after getting the leadoff man on six times. A dud to finish, yes, but the Diamondbacks still head into the break leading the NL West, 2 1-2 games ahead of the Dodgers at 50-45. "We are in first place," Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said. "We had a lot of trial and tribulations, but the team has hung in there well. We have stuck together well." Peralta, who tossed a three-hitter against Cincinnati his last start, worked around base runners through the first four innings with the help of two double plays and a pickoff by catcher Martin Maldonado after Adam Eaton strayed too far off first in the third. The right-hander extended his scoreless streak to 19 1-3 innings until Montero hit his first pitch of the fifth for his eighth homer. Peralta stranded runners at second and third in the sixth inning and worked around another runner in the seventh. He allowed a run and seven hits and struck out eight. "Hes an emotional guy and you see it on the mound," Roenicke said. "You see when hes frustrated, but when he can regroup after being frustrated and make good pitches, thats what I like to see." Kennedys frustrations continued. The right-hander has struggled with his put-away pitches, a big reason hes laboured through the first half of the season. Kennedy again had trouble putting hitters away against the Brewers, allowing four straight singles to open the game -- all after getting ahead 0-2 or 1-2. The fourth one was by Gomez, who lined an 0-2 pitch through the right side for a two-run single and another run came in on a groundout by Maldonado. Schafer drove in a run with a sacrifice bunt in the second inning and, after falling behind 0-2, led off the fifth inning with a homer that put the Brewers up 5-0. Kennedy allowed five runs and nine hits in 6 1-3 innings, the second straight start hes allowed five earned runs. He hasnt won since June 1 against the Cubs. "A lot of crazy things going on," said Kennedy, 0-3 with a 6.58 ERA his past seven starts. "I am not pitching to my abilities every once in a while, not throwing well. Very inconsistent would probably be the word." NOTES: Arizona 2B Aaron Hill ended a 0-for-16 streak with a single in the fourth inning. ... The Brewers have more than 70 stolen bases (77) before the All-Star break for the first time since swiping 87 bases in 1993. ... Diamondbacks 3B Martin Prado made a pair of diving stops -- one in each direction -- to take away hits from Maldonado in the first inning and Jeff Bianchi in the sixth. ... Arizona opens the second half of the season at San Francisco on Friday. Milwaukee faces Miami at home the same day. Russell Martin Blue Jays Jersey . Brett Kulak and Jackson Houck of the Vancouver Giants were each charged with assault causing bodily harm on Aug. 18, according to the B.C. court services.Roy Halladay Jersey . LOUIS -- The New Orleans Saints looked like a team playing out the string. http:///...on-blue-jays-jersey/ . Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC failed to make the postseason while Montreal Impact fell at the first hurdle losing heavily to Houston Dynamo in the Eastern Conference Knockout Round. Mike Zimmer made the right call, starting Sam Bradford over Shaun Hill. Mike McCarthy made a costly decision, giving up a field goal to go on fourth down.Bradford outplayed Aaron Rodgers in an impressive debut for the Vikings, and Minnesota celebrated the opening of its new $1.1 billion stadium by defeating the Green Bay Packers 17-14.Bradford, acquired from the Philadelphia Eagles on Sept. 3 for a first-round pick and a conditional fourth-round choice, watched Hill lead the Vikings (2-0) to a season-opening win. He continued his crash course in a new offense, but Zimmer didnt reveal who would start against the Packers until Bradford came out with the first unit in warmups.Minnesota didnt trade two picks for Bradford to sit on the bench. Still, there was some thought Hill deserved another start while Bradford got more time to learn a new system.I was impressed with pretty much everything he did, Zimmer said of Bradford. I thought he had great composure. I thought he had good control of things.The result couldve been different if McCarthy let Mason Crosby kick a tying 31-yard field goal late in the third quarter. Instead, the Packers went for a fourth-and-2 and James Starks was stopped 1 yard short.Bradford tossed his second TD pass on the ensuing drive to give Minnesota a 17-7 lead.I felt the advantage was to the offense in that particular situation. We all saw the play call, and its my decision, McCarthy said. I definitely felt we were playing the way we needed to play.Heres a closer look behind other important calls in Week 2:WHAT IS A CATCH?: Fans, coaches and players are still perplexed by the NFLs catch rule. In the second quarter at Houston, Kansas Citys Demetrius Harris appeared to make a catch and take about three steps before he was stripped and lost the ball. But the play was reviewed and changed to an incomplete pass.Later in the quarter, a no-catch against DeAndre Hopkins cost the Texans a TD and they settled for a field goal. Despite the calls, Houston beat the Chiefs 19-12.I dont know anything about the catch rule, Texans coach Bill OBrien said. Somebody is going to have to really sit down with me and explain to me the catch rule.GUTSY TOSS: On ffourth-and-5 with the game on the line, Marcus Mariota threw a perfect 9-yard TD pass to a well-covered Andre Johnson with 1:13 left to lift the Titans to a 16-15 win over Detroit. Joe Carter Jersey. Mariota lofted the pass over one defender and into Johnsons arms just out of the reach of a second defender and right before a third defender could bat it away.We had a matchup with Andre on a linebacker, Mariota said. We felt that we could kind of exploit that a little bit, and he made a great play. I just tried to give him a chance.ITS TRICKY: The Cowboys tried an onside kick after taking a 20-17 lead in the third quarter at Washington. The football traveled less than the required 10 yards, so the Redskins got the ball at Dallas 38 and drove for a tying field goal. Dak Prescott eventually led the Cowboys to the winning score after Kirk Cousins threw an end-zone interception .FLIPPED: A taunting call on Clevelands Terrelle Pryor for flipping the ball at a defender with 27 seconds remaining negated a 20-yard catch to the Ravens 10. Josh McCown was intercepted on the next play and the Browns lost 25-20.Im sure the officials are looking for certain things and sometimes those things will get called, Browns coach Hue Jackson said.CLOCK MISMANAGEMENT: Broncos coach Gary Kubiak decided to kick a field goal on fourth-and-1 from the Colts 17 with 1:54 left to extend Denvers lead to 26-20. But Indianapolis had no timeouts left, so if Denver went for it and converted, the Broncos would have been able run out the clock. If Indys defense held, Andrew Luck still would have had to drive the offense a long way.Von Miller made sure it didnt matter with his sack-strip , but Kubiak second-guessed himself afterward.Ill be honest with you, I really didnt like my decision, Kubiak said. I know thats crazy. We won the game.---AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Stapleton and Sports Writers Kristie Rieken and Tom Withers contributed to this report.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow Rob Maaddi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP-RobMaaddi Cheap NFL Jerseys ' ' '
