The Cubs scored a first-inning run off Brewers starter Doug Davis (8-6) but the Brewers answered right back against Mark Prior (1-6) in the bottom of the inning. Brady Clark led off with a walk, Jeff Cirillo singled and Prince Fielder walked before Kevin Mench delivered a go-ahead two-run single off the left-field wall.
Gabe Gross and David Bell hit sacrifice flies before Prior could escape the inning, and Bell and Mike Rivera hit RBI singles in the third inning to knock Prior out of the game. In three shaky innings, Prior surrendered six runs -- five earned -- on four hits and four walks. He has not won on the road in six starts dating back to last September.
Davis, meanwhile, has won his last three decisions, and the Brewers have won each of the last four games he's started. On Thursday, he surrendered four runs on eight hits in seven innings. Davis' outing was his longest since an 8 2/3-inning start against the Reds on July 4, and his eight strikeouts were his most since he whiffed nine on June 19 against the Tigers.
Overall, the team is 15-10 in Davis' 25 starts, including a 9-5 record in his 14 starts at Miller Park. They have scored at least six runs in four of his last five starts.
Fielder scored three runs while Bell, Tony Graffanino and Mench -- all acquired in the week leading to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline -- combined for six RBIs. Graffanino's two-run single off Juan Mateo in the fourth inning gave the Brewers an 8-1 lead, but it loomed large when the Cubs got two-run home runs from Aramis Ramirez off Davis in the fifth inning and Henry Blanco off reliever Jose Capellan in the eighth. Blanco's homer down the left-field line cut the lead to 8-6.
Francisco Cordero worked around the Brewers' third error of the afternoon -- and the second by Clark -- in the ninth inning and notched his fifth Brewers save.