Brewers rely on main squeeze

MILWAUKEE - The biggest momentum swing for the Milwaukee Brewers involved no swing at all.

Jonathan Lucroy - "Mr. Squeeze" to his teammates - drove in the go-ahead run with a bunt and the Brewers broke away from the Arizona Diamondbacks, 9-4, yesterday to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five National League Division Series.

"It's a free RBI if you execute and I really work hard to get that down," Lucroy said. "A safety squeeze, all you've got to do is get it down to the right area."

Ryan Braun hit a two-run homer and fellow slugger Prince Fielder added an RBI single for Milwaukee. But the brawny Brewers excel in other ways, especially Lucroy.

"The little things matter," said Jerry Hairston Jr., who scored on Lucroy's bunt. "When you have guys like Braunie and Prince with the big power, the little things add up."

The Brewers now hold a 2-0 lead in a postseason series for the first time in franchise history and will go for the sweep when Shaun Marcum goes up against rookie Josh Collmenter in Game 3 in Arizona tomorrow.

Lucroy keyed a five-run sixth inning, and delivered right after Diamondbacks reliever Brad Ziegler became angry about a balk call. That's when rookie Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke put on a play he'd already seen Lucroy successfully bunt a few times this season.

"Good teams always take advantage of the other team's mistakes," Braun said. "There's no doubt coming into that inning, they had the momentum."

With the score 4-4 and runners at the corners with one out, Hairston took a couple of half-steps and sprinted home as Lucroy bunted toward first base. Ziegler's awkward flip went wide and the Diamondbacks imploded, with Milwaukee taking a 9-4 lead.

Brewers starter Zack Greinke struggled in his first postseason appearance, giving up three home runs and leaving without a decision. He was 11-0 at Miller Park, helping the Brewers win a majors-best 57 games at home.

The Diamondbacks seemed poised for a come-from-behind victory after notching 48 this season when Paul Goldschmidt, Chris Young and Justin Upton all homered off Greinke to tie the game.

Instead, Arizona went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and Milwaukee kept its cool until the sixth, when seven consecutive batters reached with one out.

Milwaukee's bullpen of Takashi Saito, LaTroy Hawkins, Francisco Rodriguez and John Axford held tight again after posting a 1.14 ERA over 71 innings in September, but all four made it interesting.

With Greinke gone in the sixth, Saito worked around a man on third by striking out Gerardo Parra to keep the score tied. Hawkins walked consecutive batters before getting out of the seventh. Rodriguez, the former Mets closer, walked Goldschmidt and allowed a broken-bat hit to Young to start the eighth, but neither came in to score.

Axford walked two batters, but struck out Goldschmidt to end it.

"We've been down before," Upton said. "If anybody knows this team, we're going to fight until this thing is over with. It's a special team we've got here. If anybody can come back and try and do this thing, it's us."