Brewers 9, Diamondbacks 4
Ryan Braun homered among three hits and drove in three as the Milwaukee Brewers took a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five National League Division Series with a 9-4 victory over the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday.
Nyjer Morgan drove in two and Corey Hart scored a pair of runs and added an RBI for the Brewers, who send Shaun Marcum to the mound with a chance to close out the series at Chase Field on Tuesday.
Milwaukee took control with a five-run rally in the sixth. Starter Daniel Hudson (0-1) was removed after yielding a one-out double to Jerry Hairston Jr. and replaced with righthander Brad Ziegler.
Ziegler balked Hairston to third and walked Yuniesky Betancourt before committing a throwing error on Jonathan Lucroy’s safety squeeze attempt and allowing the go-ahead run to score. Instead of going for the easy out at first, Ziegler attempted a backhand toss to the catcher that got away.
An intentional walk and three straight RBI singles by Hart, Morgan and Braun pushed the lead.
Ziegler was removed without retiring a batter.
Zack Greinke working on three days’ rest, wasn’t at his sharpest but did manage to strikeout seven in five innings. Takashi Saito (1-0) earned the win in relief.
Justin Upton, Chris Young and Paul Goldschmidt homered for the Diamondbacks.