PHOENIX — Finally, the Arizona Diamondbacks won a series at home.
Their 4-3 come-from-behind victory over Milwaukee on Sunday “kind of felt like old times,” Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said.
Aaron Hill went 3 for 4 with a pair of doubles and Arizona won a home series for the first time since a season-opening, three-game sweep of San Francisco.
The Diamondbacks got two-out RBI singles from Jason Kubel, Ryan Roberts and Henry Blanco in the sixth to take a one-run lead. Paul Goldschmidt homered for Arizona.
“I hate to keep reverting back to last year. I think everybody’s kind of sick of that,” Arizona shortstop Willie Bloomquist said, “but that was kind of the recipe we used last year an awful lot — kind of lackluster for the first five innings and then wake up for an inning and take the lead and shut them down seven-eight-nine. That was a fun win.”
Bryan Shaw (1-2) threw one pitch to induce a crucial inning-ending double play in the sixth to get the win. Gibson called it “the play of the game.”
Jose Veras (3-2) took the loss in a game that Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said “falls pretty high” on the scale of disappointment.
“I feel we should have won this ballgame,” Roenicke said. “We had chances to do it. If we pitched a little bit better, we get a hit, not even a hit, just a good at-bat and we win this ballgame.”
Daniel Hudson allowed two runs on six hits in five innings in his return to the Arizona rotation. He hadn’t pitched since going on the disabled list April 21 with a right shoulder impingement.
“I didn’t feel too tired except for towards the end of that last inning,” Hudson said. “I don’t know if I was on a pitch count or what. I felt like I could go back out there for the sixth but there was no reason to push it my first start back. It’s a positive step for me to go out there and throw as many strikes as I did.”
Arizona took two of three to end a string of six straight home series losses, which had tied a franchise record.
Brad Ziegler and David Hernandez threw a scoreless seventh and eighth, respectively, for Arizona, then J.J. Putz did the same in the ninth for his 11th save in 14 tries.
Veras gave up two hits and an unearned run in two-thirds of an inning in relief of Randy Wolf. Wolf, who held the Diamondbacks to one run through five innings, allowed three runs, two earned, on seven hits in 5 2-3 innings to remain 0-2 in his last five starts.
Taylor Green doubled and scored in the fifth, then singled in a run in the sixth to put Milwaukee up 3-1. But the third baseman’s fielding error in the bottom of the inning on Goldschmidt’s grounder down the third-base line cleared the way for Arizona’s tying and go-ahead runs.
Mike Zagursky relieved Hudson in the sixth and gave up three walks and Green’s RBI single while recording just one out. Shaw, though, came on with the bases loaded and got Nijer Morgan to ground sharply to Bloomquist. The shortstop threw home for a force out, then catcher Blanco relayed to first, as the fleet Morgan seemed to hesitate for a second, for the inning-ending double play.
Gibson said the Diamondbacks “caught Morgan looking over his shoulder.”
Hill doubled off the left-field wall to start the Arizona sixth, then stole third and scored on Kubel’s two-out single to end Wolf’s day. Goldschmidt reached on the error, then Roberts and Blanco followed with singles, the first hits allowed by Veras in five appearances.
Goldschmidt’s third home run of the season came with two outs in the fourth and put Arizona up 1-0. He hit Wolf’s 3-2 pitch off the wall far above the 407-foot sign in straightaway center field, traveling an estimated 471 feet for the longest Diamondbacks homer of the season.
Roberts followed with a single but was caught stealing in a rundown on a pickoff throw to first. The same thing happened to Bloomquist with two outs in the sixth. Three Arizona base runners were erased in that predicament in the final two games of the series.
After being blanked by Hudson through four innings, the Brewers took a 2-1 lead in the fifth.
Green led off with a double to right-center, then Cody Ransom singled up the middle to make it 1-1. It was the third RBI in two games for Ransom, who was claimed by Milwaukee off waivers from Arizona on Wednesday. Ransom took second on a wild pitch and third on Morgan’s ground out, then scored on Corey Hart’s broken-bat, two-out single.
Notes: The injury-plagued Brewers will put infielder Travis Ishikawa on the 15-day disabled list with a right oblique strain and are expected to recall infielder Brooks Conrad from Triple-A Nashville. … Arizona catcher Miguel Montero missed his fifth straight game with a groin strain but could have played, Gibson said. … The Diamondbacks begin a six-game road trip with a Monday afternoon game in San Francisco, sending RHP Trevor Cahill (2-4, 3.74 ERA) against LHP Barry Zito (3-2, 3.53). The Brewers move to Los Angeles for a four-game series, Shaun Marcum (2-3, 3.93) going against the Dodgers’ Aaron Harang (3-2, 4.36). … Milwaukee hasn’t won a series away from home since taking three of four from the Cubs in Chicago in the Brewers’ first road series of the season.
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