Capuano could not convert his sixth attempt to notch win No. 11 despite one of his most efficient starts this season, and Turnbow walked his way into another jam. As a result, the Brewers lost a tight one to John Smoltz and the Braves, 2-1, at Turner Field on Friday night.
"That's really not in my head," said Capuano, who has been stuck at 10 wins since before the All-Star break. "The [personal] record is not what I'm thinking about right now. I'm trying to put us in position to win."
He did, with his seven innings of work marred only by Andruw Jones' second-inning solo home run, and Geoff Jenkins responded to his removal as a regular member of the starting lineup by coming off the bench to deliver a game-tying sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth.
But Turnbow (4-8) let it slip away in the bottom of the ninth, issuing a pair of walks before Jeff Francoeur hit a one-out double that scored the winning run. Marcus Giles narrowly scored on the play -- he recognized late that Brewers outfielders were going to play the ball -- to make a winner of Smoltz (10-5), who limited the Brewers to one run on five hits in the 53rd complete game of his career.
The Brewers dropped to 20-37 on the road with Friday's loss to the Braves, who own the worst home record in Major League Baseball, at 24-30.
"It's weird right now, because I feel really, really good in the bullpen, like I'm back on track," said Turnbow, who has an 18.32 ERA over his last 15 appearances. "I just haven't been getting the job done.
"It's awful. I'm tired of costing the team victories and, every time we get on a roll, stopping it. It's just frustrating."
Speaking of frustrated, Jenkins declined both before and after the game to discuss manager Ned Yost's decision to give Gabe Gross and Corey Hart more consistent playing time in the outfield for the duration of the season. Jenkins, who has struggled this season relative to his past production, will appear mostly off the bench.
But Jenkins came up big for the Brewers in the eighth. Smoltz had retired 18 consecutive batters when Bill Hall launched a long leadoff double and moved to third on David Bell's single. Batting for Capuano with one out, Jenkins lifted a long fly ball that Francoeur caught with his back against the wall, deep enough to score Hall easily from third base.
"This park plays deep in that gap -- it's 390 [feet] out there to that wall," said Capuano, who agreed wholeheartedly with the decision to pinch-hit. "At Miller Park, that ball is way gone. Off the bat, we all thought we had a three-run homer right there. That would have been huge."
Jenkins would only answer questions specific to Friday's game.
"When I hit it, I thought it might have a chance," Jenkins said. "It just didn't have quite enough, but it tied it up. It just didn't work out in the end."
The Brewers are hitting .217 (68-for-313) over their last 10 games, including .227 (15-for-66) with runners in scoring position.
In seven innings, Capuano surrendered one run on four hits and just 68 total pitches. He remained 0-4 in six starts since the All-Star break.
"I feel like I pitched a good game, but [Smoltz] just pitched better," he said.
Jenkins' 58th RBI of the season tied the game at 1, and that's where it stood entering the bottom of the ninth inning. Turnbow sandwiched an out between walks to Giles and Jones before Francoeur hit the game-winning double to right-center field.
Yost conceded that it may be time to back Turnbow into middle-inning duties until he gets his swagger back. The two men met in Yost's office for several minutes after the game and talked tempo.
"My tempo is really slow," Turnbow said. "I'm trying to think about what pitch I'm going to throw, where I'm going to throw it. There's just too much thinking out there right now.
"I feel really good, mechanically, right now. I feel good with my fastball. I'm going up there and challenging guys. I had two walks tonight, but on two close pitches that could have gone either way."
Turnbow admitted that he's battling the feeling that he is personally losing games. Yost brushed aside that notion.
"It's not one guy. It's the team," Yost said. "And I pin a lot of it tonight on John Smoltz. He was 'nails' tonight." Please let's win tonight.