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MILWAUKEE — Cecil Cooper fell off his limb Monday night when the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Houston Astros 9-3 at Miller Park.
The Houston manager, still ranked among the Brewers’ career leaders in 15 of 17 offensive categories, boldly predicted Sunday his Astros would come here and sweep the Brewers.
“I’m going out on a limb,” he said. “You heard it here first.”
Apparently, what Cooper wasn’t counting on was another fine pitching effort from left-hander CC Sabathia and the re-awakening of the Brewers’ bats in this first game of a six-game homestand. It’s also the first of a 21-game stretch during which Milwaukee will play 16 games at home.
The only downside to the victory came in the sixth, when left fielder Ryan Braun, making his second start after missing seven games because of a rib cage strain, left the game after striking out. There was no report from the Brewers’ dugout as to Braun’s condition, but after awkwardly swinging and missing, he lowered his head and walked to the dugout.
Sabathia pitched his fifth complete game in a Brewers uniform and scattered 11 hits in snatching his eighth win in nine starts since coming over from the Cleveland Indians July 7.
The victory trimmed the Brewers’ gap behind the first-place Chicago Cubs to five games in the National League Central race and increased their lead in the wild card race to 21/2 games over the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cubs and Cardinals were idle Monday.
Sabathia, 8-0 with the Brewers and 14-8 overall this season, is just the third pitcher in the last 90 seasons to win his first eight games with a team he joined in a midseason trade. Virgil Trucks won eight for the Chicago White Sox in 1953 after coming over from the St. Louis Browns, and Doyle Alexander won nine for Detroit in 1987 after coming over from Atlanta.
The offense enjoyed the return home as second baseman Ray Durham had three hits and three RBI, while right fielder Corey Hart added three hits and two RBI. Sabathia also pounded out two hits in the 11-hit attack. It was the first time the Brewers had scored at least nine runs in 17 games.
Manager Ned Yost laughed off Cooper’s prediction during his pregame talk with reporters.
“Maybe if we were in high school,” Yost said.
But Brewers players had noticed Cooper’s bold prediction as the story made the rounds on the computers in the clubhouse.
Hart provided the offensive juice in the first with a double that scored Braun. He singled and scored in the Brewers’ five-run fourth and added a solo home run in the seventh, his 19th of the season.
Durham also was in the thick of the offensive explosion in the fourth off Astros starter Randy Wolf (8-11). He doubled in a run, then added a run-scoring single in the sixth and another run-scoring double in the eighth.
Sabathia, though, came up with the key hit in the fourth to keep a two-out rally going. Wolf intentionally walked Jason Kendall to load the bases, but Sabathia delivered a line single to left to knock in Prince Fielder and Hart with the first two runs. Sabathia scored the fourth run of the inning on J.J. Hardy’s single.
The left-hander was not the overpowering Sabathia Milwaukee fans had come to know over his first eight starts. The 11 hits were the most he had allowed with the Brewers.
He allowed a pinch-hit home run to Reggie Abercrombie in the fifth and a leadoff homer to Ty Wigginton in the sixth for the first two runs.
Some shaky Brewers fielding in the ninth contributed to the third run. That came in on Mark Loretta’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded.
But with the bases loaded again, Sabathia delivered his 130th pitch and induced a ground ball from Lance Berkman to Bill Hall at third for the final out.
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