CINCINNATI _ A night after being victimized by some seeing-eye singles, the Milwaukee Brewers were done in by their own shaky defense.
Consecutive errors opened the door for a four-run third inning by the Cincinnati Reds, and the Brewers never recovered as they dropped their second straight game, 6-4, at Great American Ball Park.
Matt Garza continued his recent streak of strong starts, pitching five solid innings, but it wasn't enough to keep him from dropping to 5-7.
The Brewers generated all their offense on home runs, with Chris Carter's two-run blast in the ninth inning at least making it interesting.
It was a battle of the solo homers early on as the Brewers answered Joey Votto's shot to right-center in the first with round-trippers to left by Keon Broxton and Jonathan Villar off Reds starter Dan Straily in the second and third, respectively.
Staked to that 2-1 lead, Garza received no help from the defense behind him in the bottom of the third.
Tucker Barnhart opened the inning with a slow roller to the right side that Villar _ making his first major-league start at second base _ charged and flipped with his glove hand for what should have been an easy out.
Instead, Carter bobbled the ball and was charged with an error as Barnhart reached. Straily followed with a bunt in front of the mound that third baseman Hernan Perez charged in to field, but his throw to second sailed into center and both runners were safe.
That error upped Milwaukee's total to a major-league-leading 122 on the season.
Garza then plunked Eugenio Suarez to load the bases, and Votto pulled a single to right to tie it. Adam Duvall, up next, doubled into the left-field corner to get the Reds back in front, 4-2.
A fly ball to right by Brandon Phillips led to a collision between Broxton and right fielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis, with Nieuwenhuis making the catch while falling to the turf. Votto tagged and scored on the play, but Nieuwenhuis threw out Duvall easily at home as he tried to score from second.
Garza gave up a pair of singles in each of the next two innings but kept the Reds off the board before departing after a 95-pitch outing.
With four of the five runs unearned, the right-hander dropped his ERA to 4.22. He also continued a run of solid starts by the Brewers' rotation, which has combined for a 2.87 ERA over the last 22 games.
Milwaukee's offense managed a lone single by Orlando Arcia from the fourth through the eighth innings.
The Brewers did have an opportunity to get back into the game in the sixth when Straily hit Villar to open the frame and then walked Ryan Braun with one out. But Perez popped out to shortstop and Carter flied out to the wall in right to leave them empty-handed.
Straily's eight-inning start was a career best, as he allowed just three hits.
Carter's lightning bolt of a homer off Tony Cingrani in the ninth capped the scoring.
