MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers have tried this season to "take back Miller Park" from Chicagoans making the drive up Interstate 94.
It's not going very well, in the stands or on the field.
With another visitor-friendly crowd looking on, the Brewers lost a home game to the Cubs for the fourth time in five tries. Losing pitcher Tomo Ohka surrendered five first-inning runs in a 6-3 loss that sent the Brewers tumbling eight games under .500 for the first time this season.
Gabe Gross and Bill Hall each hit solo home runs, and pinch-hitter Corey Hart came a few feet short of hitting a go-ahead grand slam, but the Brewers dropped their third straight game overall and their fourth straight to the Cubs.
"We're just kind of waiting around to get hot, but I don't think we can wait any more," said Hall, who leads the post-Carlos Lee Brewers with 25 home runs. "It's the time to do it, or not. It's easier said than done, but we need to get hot."
When the Brewers beat Greg Maddux and the Cubs here on July 6, they pushed over the .500 mark for the first time in more than a month and had an opportunity to head into the All-Star break on a high note.
Instead, the Cubs won the next three games and sent the Brewers into a downward spiral. The Brewers have dropped 17 of their last 25 games, and they need to sweep the remaining two games of the current series against the Cubs to avoid losing their eighth series in nine tries.
With most of the National League clumped around .500, some Brewers are wondering whether they are missing a big opportunity.
"I don't think there's any doubt about it," said Gross. "We're just not winning ballgames right now, and it seems like a bunch of other teams are in the same boat. If anybody gets it going, it seems like they could bite off a huge chunk."
Ohka, who has missed much of this season because of injury, recorded two quick outs on seven pitches to start the game, but then surrendered five consecutive Cubs hits, including two-run home runs by Jacque Jones and John Mabry that put the Brewers in a quick 5-0 hole.
It might have been a scoreless inning. But after Cubs catcher Michael Barrett doubled, Gross, manning center field, pulled up on Aramis Ramirez's sinking line drive and let it drop for an RBI single. Jones followed with his 18th home run, and two batters later Mabry hit his fourth.
"That's a little bit of inexperience, I think, in the outfield," said skipper Ned Yost. "With nobody out, you play it safe. With nobody on and two outs, you play it safe. With a runner on, you've got to do everything you can do to come up and catch that ball."
But Ohka still had an opportunity to escape.
"Ramirez hit it off the end of the bat. I thought it was a fly-ball out," Ohka said. "But it was only one run. I don't care about that."
Said Gross: "I didn't know for sure if I could get to it. If it gets by me, it's a merry-go-round. I don't know whether I would have done anything different or not. It ended up being a big out for us."
In just four innings, Ohka (3-3) surrendered six earned runs on eight hits, two walks and a strikeout. He surrendered the same number of runs and hits in six innings of a loss at Colorado in his previous start.
Ohka has made five starts since returning from an undersurface tear of the right rotator cuff. He worked at least five innings and surrendered two or fewer runs in each of his three July starts but he has ran into trouble in August.
"I'm trying to throw the ball harder, like before the injury," he said. "A little bit more every start. I'm getting better, every start."
Is he feeling good?
"No worse," Ohka said. "I gave up five runs in the first inning; it's not from my shoulder. I made too many mistakes."
Cubs starter Carlos Marmol (5-5) was charged with three runs on four hits and four walks in 5 1/3 innings, and it could have been worse. He walked two of the three batters he faced in the bottom of the sixth, and the Brewers eventually loaded the bases and scored on Jeff Cirillo's infield RBI single off Michael Wuertz.
That reloaded the bases and prompted the Cubs to call for lefty reliever Will Ohman. The Brewers countered with right-handed pinch-hitter Hart, who hit the first pitch to the right-field warning track. A few feet farther, and it would have cleared the fence. A few feet closer to the foul line, and it would have become the third home run to land in the new party area that juts eight feet onto the field.
In 10 games since they traded away Lee, the Brewers have averaged 3.0 runs per game (30 runs in 10 games). In the 102 games before the trade, they averaged 4.7 runs.
"We keep thinking it's our time soon," said Brian Shouse. "We'll see what happens."
Yost was understandably irked by his club's latest loss, and he was not thrilled with the questions that followed it.
Asked if Ohka's recent struggles have anything to do with the fact he's less than a month removed from the disabled list, Yost was short: "No. He didn't execute his pitches. That's what it has to do with."
Asked if his team has looked "listless" of late: "No. My team wasn't listless tonight."
Asked if he had given thought to playing Hart more often in place of right fielder Geoff Jenkins, Yost replied: "I've given a lot of things thought the last couple of weeks."
Asked, regarding those "things," whether some changes are in store, he answered: "No. Not right now."
This needs to get turned around.
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